The decision reverses the ruling made against the Ishikawa Prefectural Government by the Kanazawa District Court in May 2005 and comes 11 days after the Osaka High Court overrode a ruling rejecting a similar suit by plaintiffs in Osaka. Of the 11 Juki Net cases that have been handled by district courts so far, the Kanazawa case is the only one residents have won.

The 28 plaintiffs who sued Ishikawa will appeal to the Supreme Court, according to their lawyer, Masaaki Iwabuchi.

"Its gap with the lower court ruling is too large and beyond our understanding," he said.

The national residency registry network, nicknamed Juki Net, links the residential databases of the local governments across Japan and shares that information with the national and other local governments. It has been dogged by security issues, and hence privacy issues, since its launch in August 2002.

"Juki Net does not violate privacy rights," said the presiding judge, Eikichi Nagato of the Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch.

"Public authorities, such as the state, are allowed to collect, manage and use the personal identification information on Juki Net for public welfare," Nagato said.

The national government claims the network is the basis for efficient administration in Japan. It allows administrative authorities to confirm the identity of applicants for issuing passports, paying pension benefits and other services.

The network stores personal information -- including names, addresses, dates of birth, and sex -- under an 11-digit identification code assigned to each resident.

Nagato acknowledged that residents have the right to control the disclosure of their personal information if there is a risk of their privacy being violated but said the personal identification data stored on Juki Net "are not directly related to individual autonomy and the existence of one's personality."

The Japan Times Weekly: Dec. 16, 2006
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