Japan: Issued additional guidelines for protecting the confidentiality of communication and ensuring cybersecurity for LINE Yahoo! corporation

On 16 April 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC) provided further written administrative guidance regarding the protection of communication secrets and cybersecurity to the LINE Yahoo! Corporation (LINE) as part of the ongoing investigation into LINE. The guidance follows previous administrative guidance issued to LINE in March and a subsequent report on the implementation of these measures from LINE. The MIC deemed the actions taken by LINE as insufficient and recommended further measures. In particular, the MIC requested LINE to review and strengthen the safety management and subcontractor management, accelerate the review of security governance within the whole group, and regularly publish the progress on these measures. Further, the MIC requires LINE to regularly report on the implementation of these measures.