On July 1, 2024, a new agreement between the EU and Japan facilitating data flows between the two jurisdictions (the “Data Flow Agreement”) entered into force. The Data Flow Agreement was concluded in October 2023 and will be incorporated into the text of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.

The Data Flow Agreement aims to limit digital protectionism between the two economic blocs that may result from measures such as data localization requirements or prohibitions on storage/transfers of information to other jurisdictions.

The European Commission expects that the Data Flow Agreement will bring benefits to companies active across most sectors, including financial services, transport, machinery and e-commerce.

The focus of the Data Flow Agreement is non-personal data. Japan already benefits from an Adequacy Decision from the European Commission and the Data Flow Agreement does not prevent Japan or the EU from regulating cross-border transfers of personal data.

Read the press release and the Data Flow Agreement.