Recent Developments in Computer Law in Japan

Masao Yanaga

I.      “Writing” Requirements and Consumer Protection

II.     Information Service Providers’ Liability and Protection of Victims

To cope with information technology, e-commerce and the Internet, some regulations have been introduced in Japan. This article focuses on two developments in computer law in 2001: the former regulates some types of consumer transaction in an information society, and the latter covers the ISPs’ (information service providers’) liability.

I.      “Writing” Requirements and Consumer Protection

As mentioned in the last issue of this journal, the law amending certain statutes requiring the delivery of a “writing” (Law No. 126/2000) removed some writing requirements in fifty statutes. For this time, the focus is placed on the Act Regarding Specified Transactions and the Installment Act.

1.    Act Regarding Specified Transactions

The Act Regarding Specified Transactions (Tokutei shôtorihiki ni kansuru hôritsu)^[1]regulates door-to-door selling, distance selling and specified continuous service provision transactions, etc. The purpose of this act is to make such transactions fair, in order to protect purchasers’ interests and therefore to prevent the damages that the purchasers might suffer from such transactions.

The term “distance selling” as used in this act means sales of designated goods or rights or provision of a designated service by a seller or service provider as a business (excluding telephone canvass sales) in cases where the offer of the contract has been sent by post or other methods provided in an ordinance of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, Keizai Sangyôshô), Art. 2 para. 1 no. 2. The other methods