Systematic government access to private-sector data in Japan

Abstract

National legal context and fundamental principles After the Meiji Restoration in 1867, Japan started adopting Western-style legal systems, especially from Germany, or Prussia. Japan needed to place the reins of government back in the hands of the Emperor from the rule of the Shoguns of the Tokugawas. However, the Emperor was not to become an absolute ruler but the head of a constitutional monarchy comprising independent legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Leaders of the Meiji Restoration needed the Emperor as a symbol of a new political system, but tried to retain actual power in their own hands. Prussia was an example of such a system. Other social systems were mixtures of other Western traditions. For example, the road system was adopted from the United Kingdom. Japan still drives on the left. The attempt of the Empire of Japan to become a regional hegemon was defeated by Japan’s losing of the Second World War, which ended in 1945. The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Allied Forces occupied the main four islands of Japan until 1952, while Okinawa was kept under the military administration of the United States until 1972. GHQ broke down many of the extant political, economic, and social systems in order to transform Japan to a more peaceful and democratic state. However, GHQ did not abolish the imperial system. This means that Japan’s current legal system retains elements of the prewar systems.