Japan Sets Up Working Group to Study Website Blocking
Japan's communications ministry will create a working group to weigh forced website blocking by telecom carriers as a way to curb secondary harm from leaked personal data.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesJapan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced on November 10 that it will set up a new working group to discuss ways of preventing secondary harm from cyberattacks, such as the spread of leaked personal information. The group will examine whether telecom carriers should be allowed to forcibly cut off access to certain websites, a practice known as "blocking", and what problems that would raise.
Minister Hisashi Fujii disclosed the plan at a press conference held after the cabinet meeting the same day.
Timeline and structure
The working group will sit under an expert panel on strengthening carriers' cybersecurity measures, which held its first meeting last month. The new group is expected to convene for the first time in late November, and the ministry aims to publish an interim report as early as the start of 2027.
The legal hurdle
Blocking was written into the emergency countermeasure package the government released on November 6, which calls for swift consideration of how to restrain access, including legal issues. The idea is sensitive because it may conflict with the "secrecy of communications" guaranteed by Japan's constitution. The working group will therefore focus on the practical challenges of implementation and on how to organize the legal framework.
Fujii stressed that blocking requires careful deliberation, while saying the government intends to speed up work on preventing secondary damage.
For internet users and service providers in Japan, the outcome could decide whether carriers ever gain the power to restrict access to sites hosting stolen data. Any such step would have to be reconciled with constitutional privacy protections, which is why the legal analysis is expected to drive the discussion in the coming months.
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