The Diet debate on the government-proposed privacy legislation cleared a major hurdle last week as a Lower House special committee approved it with the support of the ruling parties. The controversial package, designed to protect personal information held by government offices and private companies, is an improved version of similar legislation that was aborted in last year's Diet session.
The possibility remains, however, that such information might be wrongly collected, stored or used.
One important improvement is that concerns about media regulation -- a major reason the original package was killed -- have been alleviated if not removed. Another notable change is the inclusion of new rules for punishing government employees who collected sensitive personal information by taking advantage of their official positions.