Learn in the textbookCorporate Governance and Administrative / Environmental Laws
DefinitionThe Information Disclosure Act (情報公開法) is the law that lets anyone request disclosure of administrative documents held by national administrative organs and sets out the procedure for doing so.
ExplanationIts formal name is the Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs, and its purpose is to fulfill the government's duty to explain its activities to the public (accountability). An organ that receives a request must in principle disclose, but information that can identify individuals or that would harm a corporation's legitimate interests if made public is excluded as non-disclosure information. Documents held by local governments are handled by each one's own information disclosure ordinance.
Memory hookThe one doing the disclosing is the national administrative organ. Remember it by the subject: the duty to open up lies not with the requester but with the government body that holds the documents.