This essay examines the origins of Japan’s Personal Information Protection Act, enacted in 2003, and argues that it functions not to deter crime but to shield criminals.
By highlighting the explosion of data breaches and cybercrime, the author criticizes the roles played by Asahi Shimbun, activist groups, and intellectual elites in promoting a deeply flawed legal framework.
The article calls on Japan and the world to confront the true nature of this law.

September 29, 2016
When I awoke this morning, I recalled that in 1994 I spent ten million yen to place an opinion advertisement, in the form of an insert, in every household in Tokyo that subscribed to Nikkei.
When I wanted to confirm what I had written at the time, I found that it was fortunately introduced at the end of my first book, The Turntable of Civilization, published on December 1, 2012.
I found myself impressed.
That is because in that same year, before placing the advertisement in Tokyo, I spent several million yen to publish opinion advertisements—different in content but united in purpose, namely to correct the folly of policies that diminished Japan—in every household subscribing to Nikkei in Osaka and to Asahi Shimbun in central Osaka.
Four years after the mistaken policy decisions of 1990, Japan’s Lost Twenty Years began, and the progress of the Turntable of Civilization came to a halt.
That result created today’s extremely unstable and dangerous world, a fact that is now undeniable.
Put very simply, this responsibility lies entirely with Asahi Shimbun and the so-called cultural figures who aligned themselves with it.
Even today, Asahi Shimbun—perhaps with only a few remaining sympathizers—published, in a large space, an article by a young man who grew up reading and absorbing Asahi, now calling himself a scholar, who wielded pseudo-moralism to criticize European authorities’ counterterrorism measures.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the core of his argument was simply “protect the Personal Information Protection Act.”
This young man is completely unaware of the reality that in Japan today countless criminals continue to commit fraud and other evils while hiding behind so-called personal information.
He merely brandishes self-serving pseudo-moralism.
I have repeatedly stated my conviction that the process by which the Personal Information Protection Act was created is exactly the same as that of the recent hate speech legislation.
Ninety-eight percent of the Japanese people suffered no inconvenience, dissatisfaction, or disadvantage whatsoever in the era before this law existed.
When one investigates when the Personal Information Protection Act was enacted, it turns out, just as expected, to be a very recent law, passed on May 23, 2003.
Since this law came into force, how many reports of data breaches have we seen.
Have we ever seen reports of the criminals involved being arrested.
The reality is that such cases are virtually nonexistent.
Anyone who uses a PC knows that the internet environment monopolized by Microsoft Windows is riddled with vulnerabilities.
In other words, Windows’ domination of the world also became a breeding ground for criminals.
The time has long since come for Japan and the world to realize that the Personal Information Protection Act was created to protect these criminals.
For example, when the United States had vital corporate or government secrets stolen by Chinese information units, were the criminals punished.
Countless network intrusions and data violations occur daily, yet no one ever sees reports of the perpetrators being apprehended.
While the system for pursuing criminals is almost nonexistent in its incompetence, criminals themselves are protected.
If such a foolish law, below even kindergarten level, is not to be called an evil law, then what is.
This law is pernicious because its process of enactment was impure.
So-called civic groups—unknown to 99.99 percent of the Japanese people—raised their voices, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations followed suit, and Asahi Shimbun promoted it through editorials.
There can be no doubt that this is how the law came into being.
Despite being completely unable to punish criminals, it punishes the victims of crime instead.
As I was writing, I realized that this law may well represent one of the most successful information operations conducted against Japan by the governments of China and South Korea, which seek to steal Japanese corporate technology—
in other words, by organizations such as the CIA and the FBI of those countries.
Those who smiled in satisfaction at the passage of such a law were none other than them.
And today, one of Asahi’s young sympathizers defends this absurd law by criticizing the actions of European authorities who face threats to their lives in everyday life.
I am certain that European authorities will never, under any circumstances, lend an ear to his opinion.