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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociology of Law
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1397528
This article is part of the Research Topic Changing Digital Relations between Science and Society: Implications for Democracy and Human Rights View all 3 articles

"Data Free Flow with Trust": Japan's Struggle to Integrate Democracy and Human Rights into Digital Trade Policy

Provisionally accepted
John G. Dale John G. Dale 1*Nobuhiro Aizawa Nobuhiro Aizawa 2
  • 1 George Mason University, Fairfax, United States
  • 2 Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Japan's original concept of "Data Free Flow with Trust" (D.F.F.T.) recently has been embraced by the Group of Seven (G-7) member states, shaping their emerging transnational digital trade policy discourse. This marks a significant turning point for the institutionalization of global digital trade. Because the D.F.F.T. concept is now ensconced in the G-7's member states' bilateral and preferential trade agreements between nation-states worldwide, including those in the Global South, it is important to understand how it has influenced these agreements. Drawing on interviews with Japanese ministers, business elites (including their advanced digital technology sectors), and Japanese legal experts who contributed to the processual development of D.F.F.T., as well as primary information from white papers and policy papers, parliamentary session records and bi-lateral trade agreements, labor unions' and non-governmental organizations' technical reports for our analysis, we contribute to the field by tracing the discursively contested emergence and meaning of this concept, originally rooted in a national ("Society 5.0") vision for Japan's digital transformation, and its subsequent transnationalization in international fora and institutionalization in global digital trade policy. We also identify its threats to human rights, democracy, and the global knowledge economy.

    Keywords: Nobuhiro Aizawa: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources

    Received: 07 Mar 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dale and Aizawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: John G. Dale, George Mason University, Fairfax, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.