A governmental panel charged with drawing up guidelines on research into the human genome addressed privacy issues in its first meeting Monday, panel members said.
The 19-member panel, established by the education, health and trade ministries and the Science and Technology Agency, is tasked with establishing draft guidelines by September and finalizing them by the end of next March.
The guidelines are to cover research into the human genome conducted by companies, universities and medical institutions.
Violators of the guidelines are expected to face punishments such as orders to return public research funds.
The panel is led by Tadao Kakizoe, director of the hospital attached to the National Cancer Center.
In June, an international group of researchers completed sequencing and assembling the human genetic code after 10 years of work.
The breakthrough is seen as a great leap forward toward development of new treatments for diseases such as cancer, but at the same time, there is concern that people may be discriminated against on the basis of their genetic makeup.
A code of ethics for research into the human genome has already been compiled by the Council for Science and Technology at the Prime Minister's Office, but it is viewed merely as a rough draft addressing constitutional issues while more specific rules are being drawn up.