On July 17, the European Union and Japan agreed to recognize each other's data protection systems as "equivalent," which would allow personal data to flow safely between the European Union and Japan. The next step is for each side to adopt the adequacy finding. For the European Union, this involves obtaining an opinion from the European Data Protection Board and approval from a committee composed of representatives of the EU Member States. If approved, this mutual adequacy arrangement would create the world's largest area of safe transfers of data based on a high level of protection for personal data.

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