EU And Japan Reciprocal Adequacy Decisions Create "The World's Largest Area Of Safe Data Flows"

On 23 January 2019, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision in relation to Japan, creating, in the words of Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová, "the world's largest area of safe data flows".

The Commission's adequacy decision, which is the first under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), was forged on the basis of a number of additional safeguards that Japan agreed to put in place to ensure that personal data transferred from the EU to Japan enjoys protection guarantees in line with EU standards.

These include "supplementary rules" providing additional safeguards to strengthen, for example, the protection of sensitive data; the exercise of individual rights and the conditions under which EU data can be further transferred from Japan to another third country; assurances as regards access of Japanese public authorities for criminal law enforcement and national security purposes; and a mechanism for handling complaints from Europeans regarding