JAPANESE DIET PASSES LEGISLATION ON HARMFUL

UNCLAS TOKYO 001659 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EINT TINT JA SUBJECT: JAPANESE DIET PASSES LEGISLATION ON HARMFUL INTERNET CONTENT ¶1. (U) Summary: The Japanese Diet on June 11 passed legislation intended to protect minors from harmful content on the Internet. The law promotes education on using the Internet safely/responsibly, but also calls on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide filtering for young users. Moving beyond content already illegal in Japan, the law seeks to restrict access by children under 18 to content that directly or indirectly encourages suicide or crimes, or is otherwise harmful. Industry contacts -- including U.S. company representatives in Japan -- seemed satisfied that their concerns were considered and expressed commitment to work with authorities to help address concerns related to harmful Internet content. End summary. ¶2. (U) The Japanese Diet June 11 passed the Internet Restriction Law for Minors. The draft had the backing of both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and was developed from deliberations of a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) committee. The law's goal is to encourage minors to develop the knowledge and skills to use the Internet safely and in the meantime provide them a safer online environment. The law will establish a Council in the Cabinet Office to develop a strategic plan and basic policies covering education, technology development, and private sector partnership. A review of implementation will take place in three years. ¶3. (U) The law calls on mobile phone and device companies that provide Internet access to provide filtering services for under-age users or to any other user upon request. Computer makers are to take steps such as pre-installing filtering software. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should endeavor to follow notice and takedown rules. Entities developing filtering technologies may be eligible for government support. The new Council will develop further details of implementation. ¶4. (U) The Japanese public has been alarmed by an increase in youth suicides associated with suicide websites. They were also shocked on June 8 when a man wielding a knife killed seven and wounded 10 people in a Tokyo neighborhood after posting online that he was "tired of living and wanted to go out with a bang." ¶5. (U) The law provisionally outlines three types of harmful content: content that directly or indirectly encourages crimes or suicide, sexually explicit content, and distinctly cruel content. Designated private entities will be responsible for specifically identifying harmful content. ¶6. (U) Industry contacts commented they were pleased by the transparency of the process and that their input was considered during drafting. This effort, however, still raises challenging issues. One issue concerns the slide from filtering harmful content to censorship. Industry was relieved that the government will not directly take on the role of monitoring Internet content and determining what content is/is not permissible. Nevertheless, relying on third party entities still leaves concerns about eventual filtering regimes. ¶7. (SBU) Industry concerns over liability were averted as the provisions are voluntary. However, major providers such as Microsoft and Google have expressed their commitment to collaborate to help find workable regimes. Microsoft for example, seeking a constructive compromise between providing a free flow of information and censoring harmful content, indicated that it had made adjustments to its search engine parameters so that searches related to suicide would return first links to suicide counseling resources. SCHIEFFER