April 2017 to March 2018

   In Japan, it is expected that security cameras and facial recognition technology will be used at the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics and also for the realization of a smart society. But although the demand for these technologies is growing due to their importance for public safety, people are also becoming increasingly concerned that new approaches to the use of surveillance video and facial recognition will infringe on people’s privacy and data protection rights. As a result, vendors and user companies can be reluctant to adopt these new technologies. Under strong pressure from industry, the legal interpretations and operational guidance are being clarified by means of legal guidelines and guidebooks, but it may become necessary to take further legal measures when the above technologies are fully implemented for events such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. In this study, we reviewed the national and international trends relating to surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology, and the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that went into force in May 2018 and its guidelines. We also performed a literature review and field surveys (in the UK and Spain).

   As the second part of this study, we also conducted field surveys (in Spain and Rwanda) together with a review of the literature on foreign national ID cards and eIDs (electronic identification documents). To promote the acceptance and use of electronic administrative services, we recommended expanding the use of public personal authentication functions (Japanese Public Key Infrastructure) in My Number Card, and simpler personal authentication measures, such as ID/PW combinations together with the expanded use of smart phones. Our findings from both parts of this study were published both inside and outside NEC by means of seminars, articles in specialist journals, and newspaper articles.