Joint press statement by Commissioner Michael McGrath and TEZUKA Satoru, Chairperson of the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan

Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael
McGrath and Chairperson TEZUKA Satoru met in Tokyo today to further advance the
strategic collaboration between the EU and Japan in the areas of data protection and data
transfers. This partnership is based on the 2019 mutual adequacy arrangement - the first of
its kind - which established the world's largest area of free and safe data flows.

They discussed the significant progress made in the ongoing talks to expand the scope of
the EU adequacy decision on Japan to academia and research as well as to the public sector,
which is one of the priorities identified at the 30th EU-Japan Summit held in Tokyo on 23 July
2025. In particular, they welcomed the successful conclusion of the talks on academia and
research which will bring significant mutual benefits to cooperation in this area. They also
decided to further intensify the talks on extending the adequacy decision to the public sector.
They concurred on taking stock of progress on this aspect of their joint work by the end of
year.

Finally, the meeting provided an opportunity to reaffirm both sides' commitment to the
promotion of Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT), through initiatives such as adopting mutual
adequacy arrangements with third countries, connecting sets of model contractual clauses
used in different jurisdictions or promoting the adherence to international instruments such
as the OECD "Declaration on Government Access to Personal Data Held by Private Sector
Entities". They stressed the role that the "adequacy network", launched by the Commission
in March 2024, can play in advancing DFFT and look forward to its next meeting.