Privacy in Japan, toward the invention of a concept
In modern societies, human beings are conscious of their rights, and the right to privacy is now globally accepted. Several legislations exist from Europe to North America but also in Asia and more particularly in Japan.
Still, a perception of the idea of privacy and its significance is not fundamentally universal. In Japan, due to a specific idiosyncrasy, including one particular cultural and linguistic situation, the right to privacy is part of a subjective notion, coming from the Judeo-Christian civilization.
That said, the digital revolution forced the Japanese regulator to build a legal framework in 2005 when one of the main goals was cleary to create awareness in the Japanese society when it comes to the need of privacy.
We will explore in the following lines how idiosyncratic determinants affected and still are affecting the perception of the right to privacy in Japan and how the Japanese civilian society receives the privacy paradigm.
Culture affects the perception of privacy. There is nothing new under the sun. Ethics, morals, and values are received and understood following a cultural and psychological prism. The judgment process always is a characteristic act. Moreover, the right to privacy does not escape this logic. However, when it comes to Japan, the reception of this right could be even more tricky for there is no Japanese word matching precisely to the English word privacy. We may be able to use the word puraibashi, but this word is adopted and adapted to fit the Western vision on privacy. In other words, puraibashi translates in Japanese the way Westerners see the right to privacy but not the way Japanese do see it. Some Japanese scholiasts consider not only the term privacy but the ontological concept as an imported idea and even more as a colonial contribution. We may identify a fundamental feeling of rejection toward the idea of privacy in Japanese society since it may mean that every single human being can arbitrarily decline intrusion by others. Japanese commonly set a great emphasis on communitarianism and consider that the crafting of a balanced individuality could be achieved by learning to be collaborating with others. We would like to use an illustrating example to this statement by questioning privacy and individual sovereignty from a Japanese perspective. Indeed, rice agriculture has influenced Japanese social aspects since it is based on a collective decision-making process when the community is more valuable than the individual. The Japanese society holds thus assertiveness (seen as having a distinctive or pronounced taste or aroma) as a vice when compromise is regarded as a virtue.
We do have here a linguistic and anthropological concern when it comes to interpreting the concept of privacy in Japan. We may attach to the concept of privacy a particular Japanese value expressed by the world enryo, which means that an individual shall hold back on the principle that he shall not presume on the goodwill of others. Let us say it in another way; an individual may be worried that when not holding back, he might be viewed as rude and hated. The concept of privacy in Japanese could be, thus, seen via the prism of respectability. How are we seen and considered by the surrounding society if we presume on the goodwill of others? This is the psychological counteract to privacy in Japan. However, we could also join this description of the meaning of communication. Japanese are required to behave as sophisticated and self-controlled communicators, to sense accurately the intended moods, sentiments, and philosophies of others.
Within the Japanese Doxa, emphasis on the right to privacy as "the right to be left alone" denotes a loss of cooperativeness as well as a failure to interact with others. If we consider privacy as the right to govern upon our digital identity and its related data, then we enter a complex area built on a kind of obscene excess of suspicion in relation both to a collaborative society and to those who manage personal data.
The challenge in Japan, when it comes to the right to privacy, is not only based on a missing legal framework or a technical limitation. It relates to the deficiency of an ontological and linguistic framework to reveal precisely the Japanese vision on privacy together with a bitter feeling to be imposed to accept the way Westerns do see privacy and want the others to consider it. Still, the Japanese idea of privacy reminds to be invented and crafted by and for the Japanese using, maybe, the German concept of the Hegelian concept of Aufhebung which means conserve and surpass, linking between a traditional behavior and modern necessity.
[1] The Act for Protection of Personal Data - April 2005 [2] The term has also been defined as "abolish", "preserve", and "transcend". In philosophy, aufheben is used by Hegel to describe what occurs when a thesis and antithesis interact, and in this sense is translated mainly as "sublate".