# 個人情報の保護に関する法律 / Act on the Protection of Personal Information — 第三条 (Article 3)

- Law: 個人情報の保護に関する法律 (Act on the Protection of Personal Information), 平成十五年法律第五十七号
- English title "Act on the Protection of Personal Information": Ministry of Justice translation
- Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say.
- Provision: 第三条 (Article 3)（基本理念） — address `art-3`
- Text in force since: 2026-10-01
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/personal-information-protection-act/art-3
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-3
- Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it.
- Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below.

Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text
below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and
says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this
site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names.
They are never merged and never substituted for one another.

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### 第三条（基本理念） — (Basic Principles)
<sup>caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>
<sup>art-3 · https://japanlaw.org/en/personal-information-protection-act/art-3 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-3</sup>

**第一項**  個人情報は、個人の人格尊重の理念の下に慎重に取り扱われるべきものであることに鑑み、その適正な取扱いが図られなければならない。
<sup>art-3/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/personal-information-protection-act/art-3/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-3/par-1</sup>
The proper handling of personal information must be pursued in view of the fact that it should be handled prudently in line with the philosophy of respecting the autonomy of the individual.
<sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

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## Sources

- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 個人情報の保護に関する法律 — the text in force from 2026-10-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/415AC0000000057/20261001_507AC0000000070), retrieved 2026-10-10
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Act on the Protection of Personal Information — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4241/tb), retrieved 2026-10-10
- This site's parser, version 190 — 個人情報の保護に関する法律 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-10