Citizens´ Concerns about the Privacy of Personal Information Held by Government: A Comparative Study, Japan and New Zealand

The paper reports an investigation of the concepts of information privacy and trust in government in Japan, and compares the findings with an earlier study in New Zealand which used a similar instrument. Cultural and other factors are sought which might explain differences in attitudes shown in the two studies. The responses of Japanese citizens interviewed indicated that they had major concerns about information privacy, knew little about any protection offered in law, and had considerably less trust in government than New Zealand respondents showed. Cultural factors that might contribute to these differences, such as the difference between a collectivist versus a more individualistic culture were reflected in some of the respondents´ explanations of their views.