Video and Audio recording laws in Japan

[Emoni]

Hello everyone, a simple but rather complex and difficult question possibly.

I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge of where I can find some basic answers on the audio and video recording laws in Japan, preferably in English (since when it gets to laws, that is the easiest for me to understand) but Japanese is fine as well.

So far, I've found that public recording appears to be fine as long as it is private use (not entirely sure of the specifics of this though, as I know it can't be used or posted anywhere for the risk of being sued for damages) and also recording of police encounters seems to be perfectly legal in Japan since they are under the status of Koumin. This is literally the limit of my knowledge, and I'm certain there may be misinformation and misunderstandings on my part.

Thanks for anyone who can help with this.

-Emoni

 

[Glenski]

What exactly is it that you want to record?

 

[Emoni]

The reason I ask is that I always carry my camera with me. I've lived here a while, and only a few times I've seen or been involved in a possible incident, either with someone making threats or trying to cause trouble with myself, or another person. Or police stopping me randomly.

I'm trying to confirm the situation legally for recording with a camera for the sake of evidence. While I'm not looking for trouble, or expecting anything time soon, I've always been unsure of such laws and felt I should confirm what the general law is regarding such recordings in Japan