VZCZCXRO1742
OO RUEHCHI RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHPB RUEHRN
DE RUEHKO #1659 1692258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 172258Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEAWJA/JUSTICE DEPT WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5151
INFO RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
RUEHSS/OECD POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 8426
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 6678
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 0801
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 2133
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 9011

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