On May 15, 2020, the Act on Partial Revision of the Act on Facilitation of Information Processing (Act No. 67 of 2019) came into force. This Act stipulates provisions for (1) companies’ management reforms in the aspect of digital technologies, (2) development of foundations for data collaboration and sharing across society and (3) establishment of safety and other provisions.
1. Purpose of the Act of Partial Revision of the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act, etc.
The government of Japan aims at the achievement of Society 5.0, a policy for making a balance between economic development and solutions to social challenges taking advantage of new digital technologies and a variety of data. To achieve this goal, Japan needs to take measures for: companies’ management reforms in the aspect of digital technologies, development of foundations for data collaboration and sharing across society, and establishment of safety, all of which should be conducted in both the public and private sectors; and development of cross-societal foundations therefor.
Outline of the Act
Companies’ management reforms in the aspect of digital technologies
The Act is to require the government of Japan to formulate guidelines that present to companies ideal approaches to making use of strategic systems in their business management and to create a system in which an authority certifies businesses engaging in outstanding efforts under the guidelines if such businesses file a request therefor.
The Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan (hereinafter referred to as “IPA”) will explain details of the system on its website.
(2) Development of foundations for data collaboration and sharing across society
The Act is to add a new service to those by IPA of formulating technical specifications (digital architectures) commonly necessary to accomplish smooth data collaboration and sharing between different types of businesses or across society.
Specifically, on May 15, 2020, IPA inaugurated a new body called “Digital Architecture Design Center (DADC)” as an effort in response to this addition of a new service. For details of DADC, see the IPA press release and its website exclusively for the DADC below.
(3) Establishment of safety
The Act is to add a new service to those by IPA of operating a system for assessing the safety of a cloud computing service used in governmental procurement. METI will explain details of the system on its website at a later date.
(4) Other systems
The Act is to add a new system wherein the registered information on IT Security Support Providers should be updated every three years in order to allow such Providers to have the latest knowledge on and skills for cyber security in a secure manner and other systems.
