Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail

特定電子メールの送信の適正化等に関する法律（とくていでんしめーるのそうしんのてきせいかとうにかんするほうりつ）

The rules for businesses that send advertising email: mail only people who consented or otherwise fall within the Act's list, stop when asked, show who is sending, never fake the sender's details, and never mail made-up addresses to send in bulk.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 38
Amendments on the way: 0

Read the text Open on e-Gov

What this law does

A sender (送信者) may send specified electronic mail (特定電子メール) only to the people Article 3(1) lists. First among them is anyone who has told the sender, or the business that commissioned the sending (送信委託者), beforehand that they want to receive it or agree to receive it; the three other groups listed are set out under the exceptions below.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)

Read the full overview

Whoever received that request or consent must keep a record proving it, in the way a joint Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Cabinet Office (総務省令・内閣府令) sets.(Art. 3(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Once a person tells the sender, or the business that commissioned the sending, that they do not want its specified electronic mail — or not about certain matters — in the way the joint Order sets, the sender must not send them mail against that wish, even if they had consented before.(Art. 3(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
Each specified electronic mail must correctly show on the recipient's screen the name of the sender (or, where a business commissioned the sending, of whichever of the two is responsible for it), an email address or other identifier for sending a refusal, and other matters the joint Order sets. How they are shown, and what else must be shown, is set by that joint Order (総務省令・内閣府令).(Art. 4(1), Art. 4(1)(i), Art. 4(1)(ii), Art. 4(1)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
A sender must not send specified electronic mail with false sender information (送信者情報): the email address, or the identifier of the telecommunications equipment, used to send it. Nor may a sender, aiming to send many emails for its own or another's business, send email to made-up addresses (架空電子メールアドレス) — addresses generated in bulk by a program that nobody actually uses.(Art. 5(1), Art. 5(1)(i), Art. 5(1)(ii), Art. 6(1), Art. 2(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)
A sender of specified electronic mail must deal in good faith with complaints and inquiries about it.(Art. 9(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 states the law's own purpose

Advertising emailPrior consent (opt-in)Unsubscribing (opt-out)What an email must showSpoofed sender informationMade-up email addressesComplaints to the ministersPenalties

38 89 58 10 27

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . No amendment to this law is waiting to come into force. Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

5 amendments already in force

1 June 2025
The text on this site
Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.
刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
17 June 2022
Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.
刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 April 2019
Act Partially Amending the School Education Act
学校教育法の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
31 May 2017
Act Partially Amending the School Education Act
学校教育法の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
14 July 2011
Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc. to Address the Advancement of Information Processing, etc.
情報処理の高度化等に対処するための刑法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

Who it applies to

It applies to

Senders (送信者) of specified electronic mail: for-profit bodies, and individuals running a business, who send email as a means of advertising their own or another's business. Only sending from or to telecommunications equipment in Japan counts, so email sent by a person not in business, or sent neither from nor to equipment in Japan, is not specified electronic mail.(Art. 2(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
Email (電子メール) here means messages sent to particular people for display on their screens by a communication method an Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省令) sets.(Art. 2(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)

3 more

Businesses that commission others to send their email (送信委託者) — for-profit bodies and individuals in business. Consent and refusals given to them count, and an order under Article 7 reaches them too where they did part of the sending work, such as receiving consents or keeping the record, and are found at fault.(Art. 3(1)(i), Art. 3(3), Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Telecommunications carriers (電気通信事業者) that offer email services must try to give their users information that helps prevent disruption from such mail, and to develop or introduce technology for it. A carrier may refuse email service to someone whose sending threatens disruption, such as mail with false sender information or mass mail to made-up addresses, as far as needed to prevent it.(Art. 10(1), Art. 10(2), Art. 11(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Registered agencies (登録送信適正化機関), which the two ministers may register to advise people wishing to complain under Article 8, investigate complaints when asked, and gather and provide information on such mail. They must work fairly, file their work rules, keep books, and let recipients and other interested persons see their financial statements.(Art. 14(1), Art. 18(1), Art. 20(1), Art. 26(1), Art. 22(2)) (the provisions it rests on)

Special rules and exceptions (5)

Besides those who consented, a sender may send specified electronic mail to anyone who gave the sender, or the commissioning business, their email address in the way the joint Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Cabinet Office sets.(Art. 3(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
It may also be sent to anyone in a business relationship (取引関係) with the person whose business the email advertises.(Art. 3(1)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
It may also be sent to organizations, and individuals running a business, that make their email address public in the way the joint Order sets.(Art. 3(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)
In cases the joint Order sets — such as email the recipient wanted, sent mainly for another purpose, that carries advertising only incidentally — the rule against sending after a refusal does not apply, and the mail need not show an address for refusals.(Art. 3(3), Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
People who, when the amending Act No. 54 of 2008 came into force, had already asked a sender or the commissioning business for its advertising email or agreed to it, or had given either their email address, are treated as listed in Article 3(1); a refusal already given to either by then counts as a refusal under Article 3(3).(Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(3), Art. 3(1), Art. 3(3)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it is enforced (9)

The Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications (総務大臣) and the Prime Minister () — the Minister alone where mail to made-up addresses is concerned — may order a sender to take the steps needed to improve how it sends email. They may do so where they find it is not following Article 3 or 4, or has sent mail with false sender information or to made-up addresses, and consider an order needed to prevent disruption of email. The order can also go to the business that commissioned the sending, where it did part of the work, such as receiving consents or keeping the record, and is found at fault.(Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Anyone who receives specified electronic mail and considers it was sent in breach of Articles 3 to 5 may ask the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications or the Prime Minister to take appropriate measures. The minister must investigate and, where needed, act under this Act or otherwise. A provider of email services may likewise ask the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications to act on mail sent to made-up addresses.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(3), Art. 8(4), Art. 8(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
As far as enforcing the Act needs, either minister may require a sender of such mail, or the business that commissioned it, to report, and may send officials into its business premises to inspect books, documents and other items; the officials carry identification, and the power is not one for criminal investigation. The Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications may also ask a telecommunications carrier or anyone else who granted the use of an email address or equipment identifier used by the sender of such mail for the name, address and other details identifying who was granted it.(Art. 28(1), Art. 28(3), Art. 28(4), Art. 29(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Prime Minister's powers under this Act, except those a Cabinet Order (政令) keeps, are delegated to the Commissioner of the Consumer Affairs Agency (消費者庁長官), and a Cabinet Order may give part of the work to prefectural governors (都道府県知事).(Art. 31(1), Art. 31(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications may give a foreign authority that enforces an equivalent law information that helps its work, and must make sure it is used for nothing else, nor in a foreign criminal investigation or trial without the Minister's consent. That consent cannot be given for a political offence, for conduct that would not be a crime in Japan, or where the requesting country gives no assurance of doing the same for Japan, and the Minister must first have the Minister of Justice and the Minister for Foreign Affairs confirm it.(Art. 30(1), Art. 30(2), Art. 30(3), Art. 30(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
Sending specified electronic mail with false sender information is a crime, punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to one year or a fine of up to 1,000,000 yen, and so is disobeying an Article 7 order that is not about keeping the consent record. A breach of Article 3 — mailing someone outside the Article 3(1) groups, or mailing after a refusal — failing to show the required details, or mailing made-up addresses carries no penalty of its own in Chapter 5: the penalty is for disobeying an Article 7 order about it.(Art. 34(1), Art. 34(1)(i), Art. 34(1)(ii), Art. 7(1), Chapter 5) (the provisions it rests on)
Disobeying an Article 7 order about keeping the consent record, failing to report or reporting falsely when a minister asks under Article 28(1), and refusing, obstructing or evading an inspection under it are each punishable by a fine of up to 1,000,000 yen.(Art. 35(1), Art. 35(1)(i), Art. 35(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where a company's representative, or an agent, employee or other worker of a company or individual, commits an offence under Articles 33 to 36 in the course of its business, both the offender and the employer are punished. A company is fined up to 30,000,000 yen for an Article 34 offence, and up to the fine in the article broken for an offence under Article 33, 35 or 36; an individual employer is fined up to the fine in the article broken.(Art. 37(1), Art. 37(1)(i), Art. 37(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
The two ministers may cancel a registered agency's registration, or suspend its work for a period, if it breaks the rules on it or their orders, among other grounds. Disobeying a suspension is punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to one year or a fine of up to 1,000,000 yen, or both; failing to give notice of suspending or closing its work, to keep its books, or to answer a report or inspection, or doing any of these falsely, is fined up to 300,000 yen; and failing to keep its financial statements, making false entries in them, or refusing without good reason to show them carries a non-criminal fine (過料) of up to 200,000 yen.(Art. 25(1), Art. 33(1), Art. 36(1), Art. 38(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it connects to other laws

Cites this lawLawThis law cites it

1
Act on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access
0

It also names 3 laws not yet held here.

Where the translation comes from

The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.

Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.

Sources

Everything this page rests on

e-Gov (Digital Agency)特定電子メールの送信の適正化等に関する法律 — the text in force from 2025-06-01Original
e-Gov (Digital Agency)特定電子メールの送信の適正化等に関する法律 — revision historyOriginal
Japanese Law Translation, Ministry of JusticeAct on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail — Ministry of Justice translationOriginal
Machine translation, not official
Written for this site with AIEnglish titles of amending laws, written for this site
Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text

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