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Along with signing the EU-Japan free trade deal in Tokyo on Tuesday, Brussels will announce the end of successful negotiations to award Japan a prized EU "adequacy" deal in the area of personal data.
That means the world's third-largest economy will be treated and trusted just like an EU member state in a crucial part of the modern digital economy — the sharing and protection of the personal information of hundreds of millions of Europeans.
Adequacy deals are the EU's gold standard for third countries. Japan will be the biggest economy in the world by far to be awarded the rare status.
Tokyo joins a club of 11 relative minnows — like Argentina, Israel, and New Zealand — which are considered to have the same level of personal privacy protections as Europe. The US meanwhile only has a partial arrangement that allows its companies to freely exchange personal information of European customers. [...]
The Japan deal is not without its critics. Sceptics note that Japanese treatment of sensitive personal information is a world away from the EU and its legal strictures. But the European Commission has been determined to get the data deal done to coincide with the finalisation of trade talks and show the bloc is ready to do business with any country that is ready to abide by its privacy laws.
Then there's Brexit. The UK will be watching closely as the next big non-EU country likely to request a data flows deal with the bloc. But the Brits want more than what's on the table.
Adequacy can be taken away unilaterally at the behest of the commission should Brussels decide a non-EU government is snooping on its citizens or failing to protect privacy. In its recent white paper, the UK wants guarantees its companies — which operate in a digital economy worth around £240bn — won't find themselves suddenly cut off from Europe. [...]
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EU-Japan Summit Joint Statement
Remarks by President Donald Tusk after the EU-Japan summit in Tokyo
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