Japan: Ruling on right to be forgotten case between an individual and Google by Japanese Supreme Court

On 31 January 2017, the Japanese Supreme Court (JSC) ruled in a case between an individual and Google, where the individual had requested Google to remove search results in relation to being found guilty of being involved in child prostitution. The JSC ruled in favour of Google and expanded on the criteria that have to be fulfilled for a right to be forgotten to be given. Specifically, the legal interest for non-disclosure must be balanced with the rationale behind information provision by search engines. Only if the interest in the non-disclosure of certain search results outweighs the reason to provide such information, can links to certain search results be removed from the list of search results.