Act on the Protection of Personal Information

The Commission may provide the foreign authority enforcing foreign laws and regulations equivalent to this Act (hereinafter referred to as the "foreign enforcement authority" in this Article) with information that the Commission finds as contributing to their fulfilling the duties (limited to those equivalent to the Commission's duties prescribed in this Act; the same applies in the following paragraph).

Concerning the information provision under the preceding paragraph, appropriate measures must be taken so that the information is neither used for any purpose other than for the foreign enforcement authority's fulfilling their duties nor used for a foreign criminal case investigation (limited to the one conducted after the criminal facts subject to the investigation have been specified) or adjudication (hereinafter referred to as an "investigation or adjudication") without consent under the following paragraph.

When having received a request from the foreign enforcement authority, the Commission may consent that the information it provided pursuant to paragraph (1) be used for a foreign criminal case investigation or adjudication in connection with the request except cases falling under one of the following items:

a crime subject to the criminal case investigation or adjudication in connection with the request is a political crime, or the request is found to have been made for the purpose of conducting the investigation or adjudication into a political crime;

an act relating to the crime that is subject to a criminal case investigation or adjudication connected with the request, if it were committed in Japan, is not to constitute a criminal offense according to the laws and regulations in Japan;

there is no assurance that the requesting country will accept the same kind of request from Japan.

If the Commission gives the consent referred to in the preceding paragraph, the Commission must acquire the Minister of Justice's confirmation that the relevant case does not fall under item (i) and item (ii) of that paragraph, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs' confirmation that the relevant case does not fall under item (iii) of that paragraph.

In the enforcement of this Act, care must be taken not to preclude the honest implementation of treaty and other international agreement which Japan has concluded, and established international law must be complied with.

The Prime Minister and the head of an administrative organ related to the implementation of this Act (excluding the President of the Board of Audit) must closely communicate and cooperate with one another.

Beyond what is provided for in this Act, Cabinet Order prescribes matters necessary to implement this Act.