In Japan, residents who will benefit from new privacy laws, that go into effect on April 1st, 2005. The new laws include hospitals and small clinics.
For the first time in 20 years, the Japanese Ministry of Justice will amend its rules for investigations and legal processing of claims and grievances to reduce privacy infringement, discrimination, harassment, domestic violence, and other types of human rights violations.


The present rules for human rights protection and restoration for victims empower the ministry to counsel assailants, issue cease and desist orders, or hand down criminal indictments, depending on the severity of the alleged offense. However, present procedures often take as long a year, sometimes allowing the alleged assailant to flee and inevitably postponing justice, according to an official in the ministry's press office.

New provisions include:


a "request," such as a request to an Internet service provider for deletion of defamatory and other disagreeable comments on an online, ISP-managed bulletin board;
a "warning" with a similar legal objective;

"coordination" by the ministry to mediate disputes between victims and assailants; and

"notification" to other ministries and public offices on human rights violations seeking their cooperation.