Google Suffers New Privacy Setback in Japan

Google has suffered another setback on privacy issues, this time in Japan.

The Tokyo District Court issued an injunction, ordering Google to remove some Internet search results about a Japanese man that are considered to be violating his privacy, representatives from both sides said. Though the Tokyo court order has far less sweeping implications than the precedent-setting ruling by the European Court of Justice, it touches on similar issues. The court ordered Google to delete about 120 of 230 search results that lead to articles hinting that the man was involved in criminal activity in the past, the lawyer’s office said. The plaintiff requested an injunction in June from the Tokyo court as he felt his life was endangered by the results that came up when his name was entered in a Google search, it said.