Learn in the textbookFramework of the Personal Information Protection Act — Regulated Parties and the Definition of Protected Data
DefinitionAnonymously Processed Information (匿名加工情報) is personal information processed so that no specific person can be identified and the original personal information cannot be restored.
ExplanationWhen creating it, the business must follow the legal standards and take steps such as deleting or replacing names and similar descriptions and removing Personal Identification Codes. As long as it follows the rules, such as publishing which items of information are included when creating or providing it, the data can go to third parties without the person's consent and be used for statistics and analysis. Neither the creator nor the recipient may carry out re-identification (識別行為), trying to work out who the original person is.
AnalogyIt is like cutting the name box off a questionnaire and rewriting the answers so no one can recognize the handwriting before passing it to the person tallying the results.
Memory hookAs the name combining "anonymous" and "processed" suggests, removing names is not enough: only data processed to the full standard gets this treatment.