VPNs with servers in Japan

The Act contains no provision requiring a carrier to keep users’ communication logs. The Act on the Interception of Communications for Criminal Investigation (Act 137 of 1999) allows interception by judge’s warrant for listed serious offences, and requires a carrier to cooperate in connecting interception equipment unless it has a justifiable reason to refuse (article 12). Whether a VPN operator is a carrier under these Acts is not established.

The Active Cyber Defence Act (Act 42 of 2025) is not yet in force as to communications information; as of 3 November 2026 its start awaits a Cabinet order, no later than 22 November 2027. It would let the Prime Minister obtain communications information under agreements with participating organisations and, for foreign-to-foreign traffic, with a new commission’s approval, and bar carriers with overseas facilities from refusing cooperation without justifiable reason.

Article 3 of the Telecommunications Business Act forbids censoring communications handled by a carrier. Internet providers filter child sexual abuse imagery voluntarily, under a scheme run by the Internet Content Safety Association, and authorities generally do not order providers to block content. In April 2018 the government asked providers to block manga-piracy sites, which prompted debate over users’ privacy and the constitutional ban on censorship.

A 2020 amendment criminalised illegal downloading of manga, magazines and academic texts without adding blocking powers. On 19 November 2025 the Tokyo District Court held Cloudflare liable for aiding copyright infringement by piracy sites and ordered it to pay damages to four publishers; Cloudflare said it would appeal.

Article 231 of the Penal Code punishes public insult, even without alleging facts, with up to one year’s imprisonment or a ¥300,000 fine, or detention or a petty fine; article 230 punishes defamation with up to three years or ¥500,000.

Identification runs through the courts. Under the Act on Handling Rights Infringements Caused by the Distribution of Information through Specified Telecommunications (Act 137 of 2001, formerly the Provider Liability Limitation Act), a person whose rights are infringed may demand the sender’s information from a provider (article 5), and a court may order its disclosure (article 8).

On 15 March 2017 the Supreme Court, sitting as a Grand Bench, held that police GPS tracking is a compulsory investigation requiring a warrant. Japan’s Diet has no standing committee dedicated to intelligence oversight, and the intelligence law passed on 27 May 2026, which created a National Intelligence Council, did not add one; a supplementary resolution acknowledges concern about human-rights violations.

The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.