Act for the Prevention of Illegal Mobile Phone Use requires mobile voice communication carriers to verify the identity of subscribers when a contract is terminated or transferred.

The amendment of the Copyright Act (Act No. 48 of 1970) adopted regulations on "index sites" that contain links leading to infringing content. It is reported that due to the requests for content removals and blocking, ISPs must monitor the customer's online activity to determine whether they are accessing the sites in question.

Chapter 4 of the Act on Development of an Environment that Provides Safe and Secure Internet Use for Young People (Act No. 79 of 2008), which became effective in April 2009, provides an obligation to provide service to filter content harmful to young people. The Act imposes this obligation not only for Internet service providers and mobile network service providers but also for manufacturers of equipment with functions to access the Internet, such as smartphones, as a result of the amendment that came into effect in 2018.

Japan has introduced import restrictions on certain goods from Russia under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has amended its public notice, based on Art. 52 of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act and Art. 3 of the Import Trade Control Order. This amendment subjects the import ban to approval under Art. 4 of the same Order. The items affected by this approval procedure include automatic data-processing machines and related units (HS 84.71), as well as parts and accessories for office machines like computers and printers (HS 84.73), among others.

As amended in April 2022, under Art. 2.4 of the Cabinet Order on Export Trade Control, anyone wishing to export goods listed in Table 2-3 to Russia must obtain approval from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, following the procedures established by the Ministry's Order. Table 2-3 includes several ICT goods, such as computers and their accessories, communication devices, cryptographic equipment, integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, electronic test equipment, analogue and digital recording devices, oscilloscopes, and components for microwave and millimetre wave equipment.

Japan has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Japan has a telecommunications authority: The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. However, it is reported that this entity's decision-making process is not fully independent of the government.

The Guidelines on Security Management of Information System and Services Handling Medical Information provide that information systems for the handling of medical data must be located in the territory of Japan so that in the event of an emergency, Japanese governmental authorities can enforce their power to collect information or issue administrative orders. Although this is not a mandatory requirement based on a specific law, it is reported that some medical institutions have requested that service providers maintain servers inside Japan to comply with these Guidelines.

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) “Common Standards for Information Security Measures for Government Agencies” allows for government agencies to make use of systems that are "isolated" from the internet if necessary (Chapter 5.2.1). Information on the agencies affected is not readily available.

The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Act No. 57 of 2003) (APPI) did not originally restrict the transfer of personal information to foreign countries, but amendments enacted in 2015 and which took effect in May 2017 added restrictions on cross-border data flows. The amended APPI prescribes three types of legitimate transfers of personal information to a third party in a foreign country under Article 24: (1) transfers to a country that the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) has designated as having an acceptable level of data protection; (2) transfers to a third party in a foreign country in circumstances in which actions have been taken to ensure the same level of data protection as in Japan (such as entering into a data transfer agreement imposing obligations on the transferee meeting the requirements of the APPI); or (3) transfers with the data subject’s consent.
Under the Enforcement Rules for the APPI (promulgated in 2016), as for (2), Art. 11 specifies that it means: "(i) a personal information handling business operator and a person who receives the provision of personal data have ensured in relation to the handling of personal data by the person who receives the provision the implementation of measures in line with the purport of the provisions under Chapter IV, Section 1 of the Act by an appropriate and reasonable method or (ii) a person who receives the provision of personal data has obtained a recognition based on an international framework concerning the handling of personal information." To date, the only PPC-recognised international framework is the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules System.

Japan has joined agreements with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, Art. 14.11), the Agreement Between The United States Of America And Japan Concerning Digital Trade (Art. 11), and the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Art 8.84).

The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Act No. 57 of 2003) (APPI), enacted in 2003 and last amended in 2022, is Japan's data protection regime. The Amendment Bill of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information was approved by the Diet in June 2020 and entered into effect on 1 April 2022.
In addition to the APPI, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) issued general guidelines, guidelines on data transfer to a third party in a foreign country, guidelines on confirmation and records for providing to a third party, and guidelines on anonymously processed information. Furthermore, the Guideline on Personal Information Protection in Telecommunications Business issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, genetic information guidelines issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, financial affairs guidelines jointly issued by the PPC and the Financial Services Agency, medical care guidelines jointly issued by the PPC and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare are also relevant.

Companies are required to retain their records by the following laws:
- The Consumption Tax Act (Act No. 108 of 1988) business operators and special importers to retain consumption tax-related books and records, such as those related to asset transfers or the purchase and collection of taxable goods, for seven years after the year in which they complete the records (Art. 58.1);
- The Corporation Tax Act (Act No. 34 of March 31, 1965): books, records, and documents for seven years (Art. 126.1);
- The Companies Act (Act No. 86 of July 26, 2005): shareholder meeting minutes for ten years (Art. 318.2), account books and important business materials for ten years (Art. 432.2), and financial statements, business reports, and supplementary schedules used to prepare financial statements for ten years (Art. 435.4).

The Unfair Competition Prevention Law (Law No. 47 of 1993) provides a framework for the effective protection of trade secrets. A ‘trade secret’ is defined in the law as a production method, sales method, or any other technical or operational information useful for business activities that are kept secret and are not publicly known (Art. 2). According to Art. 3 of the law, those businesses or persons whose business interests have been, or are threatened to be, infringed on by misappropriation or illegal disclosure shall have the right to seek an injunction. The Unfair Competition Prevention Act provides civil and criminal remedies in such cases where secret information about the company is stolen or disclosed illegally. To protect information according to the Act, companies need to manage such data as “trade secrets”.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Japan to deliver telecom services to end users.