Discrimination, Privacy and Protection of Employee's Personal Data

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03159
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social law
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: TOMINAGA Koichi 上智大学, 法学部, 教授 (30436498)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 差別禁止 / プライバシー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to investigate and examine the coordination between the need for employers to obtain information about workers and the need for protection of workers' privacy and against discrimination.
I collected documents, precedents, etc. on regulations such as protection against discrimination of workers and protection of privacy, and examined the way of regulation for obtaining worker information. I concluded non-discrimination and privacy protection have different bases and scopes, and the judgment framework and the strictness of regulations also differ. Under Japanese law, protection by non-discrimination articles at the hiring stage are limited, and regulations by privacy protections are in place instead. However, this suggests need for review of regulations on information acquisition by workers since those two doctrines are theoretically different.

Free Research Field

社会法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

学術的意義として、①各国では、差別禁止とプライバシー保護とで判断枠組みや保護の射程、厳格性が異なりうること、②日本法では、（特に採用段階で顕著だが）情報取得に対する規制が比較的緩いこと、③日本法では、人権等を根拠とした厳格な差別禁止からの規制が及ぶべき点についても、相対的に緩やかなプライバシー保護に依存する傾向があることが指摘される。研究の社会的意義として、差別禁止とプライバシー保護の射程の違いを踏まえて、役割分担を進める余地があること（上記③のように、差別禁止で厳格に保護されるべき情報が、現在は専らプライバシー保護の観点で保護されている状態を解消すべきこと）が指摘される。