Japan

Legislation

• Personal Information Protection Act (May 2003, in force April 2005)

Genetic Databases and Biobanks

• Japanese Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (JSNPs) Database
• Biobank Japan  stores samples and information for the Personalized Medicine Project (ELSI Committee)
• Cohort studies include:
  • Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort (J-MICC) Study
  • Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC) Study
  • Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study (JPHC) Study

Guidelines

• METI Guidelines on Commercial Usage of Genetic Information, 2004 (in Japanese)
• Ministries of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW); Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) (2001) Ethical Guidelines for Analytical Research on the Human Genome/Genes (English tranlsation). Note these were revised in 2004 in response to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.