European Union: Announced EU-Japan agreement on cross-border data flows

On 28 October 2023, the EU and Japan announced the conclusion of negotiations for an agreement on cross-border data flows. The agreement was concluded in the context of the EU-Japan High-Level Economic Dialogue, and will be included in the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) when ratified. The goal is to make handling data more efficient for businesses, and provide them with a predictable legal environment. In particular, data data storage requirements will be removed, therefore companies would no longer be required to store data locally.