Japan Adopts Bill Banning Loss Prevention Tag Use for Stalking

Tokyo, Nov. 11 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s government adopted Tuesday a draft antistalking law amendment that prohibits the act of collecting location information abusing loss prevention tags and enables police to issue warnings against stalkers without requests from victims. It hopes to get the bill enacted during the ongoing extraordinary session of the Diet, or Japan’s parliament, which is slated to run through Dec. 17. Loss prevention tags, which emit signals that are picked up by nearby smartphones to obtain location information, can be used to track individuals without their consent. While a 2021 revision of the antistalking law banned people from obtaining without consent location information using GPS devices, loss prevention tags were out of the scope of the regulation as they use a different method to transmit information. Consultations with police regarding suspected abuse of loss prevention tags totaled 370 cases last year, double the level for 2023. The number is on track to be higher this year, and there has been a case in which a tag was used by a stalker to identify the victim’s location. The draft revision prohibits nonconsensual acquisitions of location information as well as the planting of a device without consent. The domestic violence prevention law will also be amended to include similar restrictions. The bill enables police, if deemed necessary, to warn stalkers in writing to stop their behavior. They currently can do so only if requested by victims. There have been cases in which they were unable to deal with stalkers as those affected did not file requests due to fear of retaliation or a change of heart. The planned revision is also based on lessons from a case where police in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, were unable to obtain a request from a woman who was killed late last year after being stalked by her former boyfriend. If it is found that stalkers used private detectives to gather information on victims, police would be allowed under the revised law to notify the detectives that they may be involved in stalking activity and to demand that they stop providing information to their clients. If detectives fail to comply, they may be subject to administrative penalties or face criminal charges of aiding stalking. The bill also is designed to allow police in a prefecture to take necessary measures, such as issuing warnings, even if victims flee to other prefectures. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]