IPA IP 2025 Question 6

Sending advertising e-mail first and stopping only on refusal — Japan's anti-spam law requires the recipient's consent before advertising e-mail is sent (opt-in).

The Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail covers "specified electronic mail": e-mail sent to advertise a sender's business. As a rule it may be sent only to people who agreed in advance, and it must stop when a recipient refuses. The Act exempts a few cases from the consent rule, such as recipients with whom the sender has a business relationship and addresses published for business use, unless the owner has said they refuse advertising mail.

In (b) the sender plans to advertise until someone refuses. That is opt-out, the approach the Act replaced with opt-in, so the sending can be regulated.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

• •(a) — an address a company publishes for business, with no stated refusal of advertising mail, is one of the exempted cases
• •(c) — business communication and billing are not advertising, so this is not specified electronic mail at all
• •(d) — the recipient is in a long-standing business relationship with the sender, another exempted case

Key rule: Advertising e-mail needs prior consent (opt-in); the exceptions are business relationships and addresses published for business, and mail that advertises nothing is outside the Act.

Legal Affairs · AI-written, may contain errors