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Read Full BioThe Japanese government is mulling the launch of “four stages” of illegal casino website blocking measures following a draft proposal from the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Per a ministry discussion paper published on June 20, Tokyo is consulting a panel of experts who are discussing whether officials should be given the power to block the public’s access to overseas gambling platforms.
Japan Mulling Its Online Casino Blocking Options
At present, the government only allows police and other authorities to block websites if they distribute child pornography.
Tokyo has since resisted pressure to extend this to sites that host pirated manga titles and illegally downloaded TV shows.
Communications and privacy-related laws are enshrined in the Japanese constitution. This means the matter may have to be cleared by some of the highest courts in the land.
However, the ministry appears ready to act if it feels that all other options have been exhausted.
The ministry has been discussing the matter with a panel of experts since April this year. Experts were tasked with weighing up the technical viability of potential blocking orders.
To block access, IP providers would need to check all the addresses accessed by their customers. At present, this would constitute a violation of the Constitution.
A Four-Stage Process
The experts agreed that Tokyo should launch a four-stage blocking procedure. The first stage would involve deciding whether all other measures have been exhausted.
A second phase is to establish whether the benefits gained from blocking moves outweigh the drawbacks.
In a third stage, experts would draw up the legal framework necessary to implement the block. And a fourth and final stage would focus on implementation and other practical concerns.
Lawmakers are currently in the final stages of approving an amendment to the Basic Law for Countermeasures against Gambling and Other Addictions.
This legal change will comprehensively criminalize the operation, promotion, and patronage of online gaming services, including online casinos and other similar activities. It will also introduce harsher punishments for violators.
The ministry’s document notes that this new amendment will make it easier for social media platform operators to delete gambling-related posts. They will also be able to create more effective terms and conditions policies.
The document’s authors also claim that the law will make it easier to request overseas site operators to take measures such as restricting access from Japanese IP addresses (geoblocking).
Japanese Police Broaden Crackdown
Police officials are trying to pre-empt this move with requests of their own amid a wider online casino crackdown.
Through the Foreign Ministry, police have already requested that the governments of seven overseas territories urge companies to cease targeting Japanese customers.
The document mentions several DNS blocking methods.
Sometimes referred to as DNS filtering, this technique is often used to restrict access to websites by preventing DNS servers (the servers responsible for translating domain names to number-based IP addresses) from matching domain names with IP addresses.
This method makes websites unreachable from selected networks. The ministry noted that the DNS method is already “used in Japan to block child pornography and in other countries to block online casinos.”
It concluded that DNS blocking would encourage more IP providers to participate in government-led anti-gambling initiatives.
