03/02/2020 Details of 2016 (Kyo) 45 | Judgments of the Supreme Court privacy of such person, as well as the titles of and excerpts from such websites from search results Case name Case of a permitted appeal of the decision to rescind the decision of the second instance concerning the approval and decision on a provisional disposition to delete posted articles Result Decision of the Third Petty Bench, dismissed Court of the Second Instance Tokyo High Court, Judgment of July 12, 2016 Summary of the judgment (decision) Where a business operator that performs searches at the request of users and provides to users search results consisting of URLs, or codes to identify websites; and where the business operator responds to the request of any user to perform a search using conditions related to a certain person and provides to the user the URLs of websites on which articles or the like that contain facts related to the privacy of such person, the titles of such websites and excerpts from such websites, as a part of the search result, whether such act is illegal or not, should be determined comparing and considering the legal interest of such facts not being published and various situations related to the reasons for providing such URLs and other items as the results of the search, including the nature and contents of such facts, the range in which such facts are transmitted and the extent of concrete damage suffered by such person by the provision of such URLs and other items, the social position and power of influence of such person, the purpose and meaning of such articles, the social situation when the articles were posted and subsequent changes, and the need to include such facts in the articles. Considering these factors, if it is apparent that the legal interest of such facts not being published is greater than the legal interest of publishing them, the person may demand the business operator to delete such URLs and other items from the search results. References Articles 2, 198 and 199 of the Civil Code Civil Code Article 2 This Code must be construed in accordance with www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=1511 2/7