Remedying Data Vulnerability in a Global World: A Comparison of the European Union and Japan’s Approach to Compensation for Data Breaches

The notion of digital vulnerability can be defined as the exposure of individuals to risks arising from their engagement with online activities. The dissemination of personal information in the digital realm, often resulting from the misuse or violations of privacy, underscores the need for an understanding of digital vulnerability as a multifaceted phenomenon that perpetually shapes the landscape of privacy protection. This has led to privacy being recognized as an essential and vital right, continuously shaped and challenged by technological developments and judicial interpretations across various legal traditions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the data protection remedies developed by the Japanese legal system, and to investigate the relevant insights for the data protection policy and the safeguard of vulnerable subjects that Japanese judicial decisions can offer to Europe. To this purpose, the paper will highlight key elements of the Japanese and European approach in mitigating privacy-related vulnerabilities and will survey their respective limitations, focusing in particular on the impact of tort law on privacy rights and on data protection policy.