# 個人情報の保護に関する法律 / Act on the Protection of Personal Information — 第十七条 (Article 17) - 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: 第十七条 (Article 17)（利用目的の特定） — address `art-17` - Text in force since: 2026-10-01 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-17 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-17 - 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. --- ### 第十七条（利用目的の特定） — (Specifying the Purpose of Use) caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System art-17 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-17 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-17 **第一項** 個人情報取扱事業者は、個人情報を取り扱うに当たっては、その利用の目的（以下「利用目的」という。）をできる限り特定しなければならない。 art-17/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-17/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-17/par-1 In handling personal information, the business handling personal information must specify as much as possible the purpose for which it uses that information (hereinafter referred to as the "purpose of use"). Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System **第二項** 個人情報取扱事業者は、利用目的を変更する場合には、変更前の利用目的と関連性を有すると合理的に認められる範囲を超えて行ってはならない。 art-17/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-17/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-17/par-2 When altering the purpose of use, businesses handling personal information must not alter it beyond the extent that can be appreciably linked to what it was before the alteration. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System ## Cited by 5 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 個人情報の保護に関する法律 第十八条第一項（利用目的による制限） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-18/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-18/par-1 - 個人情報の保護に関する法律 第四十一条第三項（仮名加工情報の作成等） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-41/par-3 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-41/par-3 - 個人情報の保護に関する法律 第四十一条第九項（仮名加工情報の作成等） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/art-41/par-9 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/art-41/par-9 - 個人情報の保護に関する法律 附則第九条第一項（第五十一条の規定の施行に伴う経過措置） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/personal-information-protection-act/suppl-5031-37/art-9/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/415AC0000000057/suppl-5031-37/art-9/par-1 - 行政手続における特定の個人を識別するための番号の利用等に関する法律 第三十条第二項（個人情報保護法の特例） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/my-number-act/art-30/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/425AC0000000027/art-30/par-2 --- ## 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