meta_id 3029769

On 1 April 2026, Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) released its Global Strategy, outlining a medium- to long-term international approach to personal information protection and cross-border data transfer. The strategy supports Japan's whole-of-government "Data Free Flow with Trust" (DFFT) initiative, which aims to facilitate secure and seamless international data flows while respecting diverse protection systems across jurisdictions. The strategy comprises three pillars. Pillar 1 focuses on developing an international environment for secure cross-border personal information transfer. Key actions include expanding mutual adequacy arrangements with the European Union and United Kingdom to cover academia and the public sector; promoting participation in the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) Forum; establishing Global Model Contractual Clauses in cooperation with relevant countries and regions; and addressing risks such as unlimited government access to personal data. Pillar 2 strengthens cooperative relationships with like-minded countries and regions through multilateral and bilateral frameworks, including the G7 Data Protection and Privacy Authorities Roundtable, the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA), and the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA). The PPC will pursue new Memoranda of Cooperation and support personal information protection legislation development, prioritising the Asia-Pacific region. Pillar 3 establishes mechanisms for monitoring international developments—including technological innovations such as artificial intelligence—and communicating the PPC's initiatives domestically and internationally through its website and social media channels. The PPC will strengthen institutional capacity by securing sufficient human resources, exploring secondment opportunities to international organisations and foreign data protection authorities, and enhancing staff expertise in presentation, facilitation, and information-gathering to support these international operations.