Japan: Adoption of 2020 amendment to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information including data transfer rules

On 5 June 2020, the amendment of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information was adopted. The Amendment contains rules on both cross-border data transfers and domestic data protection. Regarding data transfers, the Amendment introduced information procedures for individuals' consent to the provision of personal data to foreign third parties. Businesses must inform data subjects on the destination of the data and the level of foreign data protection for their consent to be valid. In addition, contractual safeguards are sufficient only if transferors take action to ensure implementation and inform data subjects on said action upon request.