2003 JAPAN LAW: JUVENILE PRIVACY
Keywords: Privacy Protection, Juvenile Law, Criminal Law
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman
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The Supreme Court of  Japan in March 2003 handed down a decision regarding the protection of the privacy of juveniles. The Juvenile Law prohibits media identifying a minor in any way with respect to criminal offenses. In an attempt to get around that restriction, a major magazine, Bungei Shuju published an article about a minor using pseudonym greatly similar to the true name. The minor had been accused of participating in a 1994 murder. The Nagoya High Court had ordered the magazine to pay the victim 300,000 yen for violating the law. The Supreme Court reversed.
The Supreme Court stated:

“It is true that the article infringed on the plaintiff’s privacy, but the general public can not guess and confirm that it is him, and therefore the article did not violate the Juvenile Law requirements.”