Japanese court: Privacy law gives no private right of action
Privacy Laws and Business (subscription required) reports that the Tokyo District Court has issued a decision that the Japanese Personal Information Protection Law does not provide a private right of action for failure to comply. The plaintiff in this case alleged that an opthalmology clinic failed to provide copies of medical records as required by Article 25-1 of PIPL, which gives data subjects the right of access to data held about them on request. Japanese citizens have successfully brought cases for privacy breaches under civil tort law, but this case was the first to claim that suits could be brought to enforce positive rights granted by PIPL, up to now enforced only by the relevant ministries.