Nursing Care Businesses and the Privacy Law: Issues and Opportunities

No.268
June 2006
Research Fellow Naoki Atsumi
Senior Associate Kiyoshi Takiguchi

1. In April, 2005 the Act concerning Protection of Personal Information (hereafter "Privacy Law") came into full effect. This law charges companies and local governments with an obligation to handle information correctly and safely. Compared with other businesses, nursing care businesses not only handle a large volume of personal information, but these services also handle information that has a very high level of privacy (sensitive information). However, it seems that a large majority of nursing care-related businesses are lagging in proper responses to these issues.
2. In response to this, this paper looks at the main points and issues with the Privacy Law and the Ministry of Welfare's guidelines, as well as the measures needed for nursing care businesses, and investigates how personal information should actually be handled, which obligations are stipulated in the new law and differences with previous confidentiality obligations, and the importance of security countermeasures.
3. The enforcement of the Privacy Law should be used as an opportunity to prioritize the establishment of ethical compliance for persons engaged in both businesses and nursing care services.

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