July 11, 2026

The House of Councillors at its plenary session on July 10 enacted an amendment to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information by a majority vote. The amendment permits the provision of “sensitive personal information” such as personal medical history to third parties without the individual’s consent for the purpose of AI development and statistical analysis.

The Liberal Democratic Party, the “Nippon Ishin no Kai”, the Democratic Party for the People, and the “Team Mirai” voted in favor, while the Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the “Komeito”, the “Sanseito”, the “Reiwa Shinsengumi”, the Okinawa Whirlwind, and the Social Democratic Party opposed the proposed amendment.

During Diet deliberations on the amendment, privacy concerns were raised about potential violations of the rights and interests of the general public due to the risk of misappropriating or misusing “sensitive personal information”, including medical history, criminal records, and political beliefs, or illegally or inappropriately using them for discriminatory profiling.

Past related article:
> Proposed amendment to privacy law could pose risk of AI-driven privacy violations [June 25, 2026]