About Us

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The Japan-U.S. Privacy and Data Protection Program was initiated in 1999 by the U.S. non-profit Center for Social and Legal Research (CSLR) to track and report developments in Japanese privacy and data protection. The Program is headed by internationally recognized privacy expert Dr. Alan Westin, Professor Emeritus of Public Law and Government at Columbia University, author of Privacy and Freedom (1967) and Director of CSLR. Japan’s leading privacy expert, Professor Masao Horibe, U.S.-Asian privacy expert Russell Pipe, and Japanese business advisor Jun Sofue served as the Program’s initial advisors.

The Program’s goals are to provide wide-ranging, objective and in-depth coverage of the Japanese privacy and data protection environment, and to make its work available through a free online web site, the Japan Privacy Department on CSLR’s web-based PrivacyExchange service.