Japan
Regulations
This page provides AWS financial institution customers with information about the legal and regulatory requirements in Japan that may apply to their use of AWS services.
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Yes. Financial institutions in Japan are permitted to use cloud services, provided that they comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, such as those described below.
The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) is the financial supervisory authority. FSA supervises financial institutions such as banks, credit institutions, securities firms, insurance companies, and payment service providers.
Financial institutions in Japan may be subject to a number of different legal and regulatory requirements when they use cloud services.
Key regulatory frameworks include:
FISC Security Guidelines on Computer Systems for Banking and Related Financial Institutions Security Guidelines on Computer Systems for Financial Institutions — Published by the Center for Financial Industry Information Systems (FISC), these guidelines are referenced in the FSA's supervision guidelines and are treated as an industry standard for system risk management. They cover governance, risk management, outsourcing controls, and system operations.
Guidelines on Cybersecurity for the Financial Sector — Published by the FSA and effective October 4, 2024, these guidelines establish 176 specific cybersecurity response items covering governance, risk identification, preventive controls, detection, response and recovery, and third-party risk management. Financial institutions are expected to self-assess against these guidelines.
FSA Comprehensive Supervision Guidelines — The FSA's supervision guidelines for major banks and regional financial institutions contain specific requirements for outsourcing governance, including cloud outsourcing. These address due diligence, monitoring, business continuity, and exit strategy requirements.
Banking Act (Act No. 59 of 1981, as amended) — The Banking Act and its enforcement ordinances establish the statutory basis for outsourcing governance requirements applicable to banks using cloud services.
FSA AI Discussion Paper (Version 1.1, March 2026) — The FSA's discussion paper on promoting sound AI utilization in the financial sector outlines expected governance practices for financial institutions adopting AI/ML services, covering model explainability, data drift monitoring, and third-party model risk.
These frameworks cover a variety of contractual and operational areas, including governance, risk management, cybersecurity, outsourcing controls, and monitoring and oversight. Customers that have questions about the applicable regulations, and how these may apply to their use of AWS services, can reach out to their account representative.
Regulations are changing rapidly in this space, and AWS is working to help customers proactively respond to new rules and guidelines. AWS encourages its financial institutions customers to obtain appropriate advice on their compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements that are relevant to their business, including other local regulations, guidelines and laws.
AWS is committed to offering customers a strong compliance framework and advanced tools and security measures that customers can use to evaluate meet, and demonstrate compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Financial institutions who are using or planning to use AWS services can take the following steps to better understand their compliance needs:
1. Consider the purpose of the workload(s) under consideration and the relevant categories of data in order to anticipate which legal and regulatory requirements may apply.
2. Conduct a risk-based analysis of the relevant workload(s) to determine appropriate safeguards in light of local requirements.
3. Review the AWS Shared Responsibility Model and map AWS responsibilities and customer responsibilities according to each AWS service that will be used. Customers can also use AWS Artifact to access AWS’s audit reports and conduct their assessment of the control responsibilities.
4. Customers who have further questions about how AWS services can enable their security and compliance needs, or who would like more information, can contact their account representative.
Japanese financial institutions using AWS should also consider applicable privacy requirements, including Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI). Financial institutions should additionally consider the Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in the Financial Sector, which provide sector-specific implementation guidance for APPI.
Note: A significant amendment to APPI was approved by the Japanese Cabinet in April 2026 and submitted to the Diet. The amendments address AI/statistical processing, biometric data protection, children's data, and enhanced enforcement powers. Financial institutions should monitor the enactment timeline.
Information on data privacy requirements is included in the AWS whitepaper Using AWS in the Context of Japanese Privacy Considerations.
If customers process or are planning to process the personal data of data subjects in the European Union (EU), they should visit AWS’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Center which is also available in Japanese. More information on these requirements are included in Navigating GDPR Compliance on AWS.
Resources
Country-specific
AWS information on FISC Security Guidelines in Japanese.
AWS Compliance Resources (Japanese)
A collection of AWS compliance resources in Japanese.
Using AWS in the Context of Japan Privacy Considerations (English)
This document provides information to assist customers who want to use AWS to store or process content containing personal information, in the context of key privacy considerations and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (“APPI”). It will help customers understand: The way AWS services operate, including how customers can address security and encrypt their content. The geographic locations where customers can choose to store content and other relevant considerations. The respective roles the customer and AWS each play in managing and securing content stored on AWS services.
General
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) on AWS
This guide provides customers with information to be able to plan for and document the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance of their AWS workloads. This includes the selection of controls that meet specific PCI DSS requirements, planning of evidence gathering to meet assessment testing procedures, and explaining their control implementation to their PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA)..
Using AWS in the Context of Common Privacy and Data Protection Considerations
This document provides information to assist customers who want to use AWS to store or process content containing personal data, in the context of common privacy and data protection considerations. It will help customers understand the way AWS services operate, including how customers can address security and encrypt their content. The geographic locations where customers can choose to store content and other relevant considerations. The respective roles the customer and AWS each play in managing and securing content stored on AWS services.
AWS Compliance Quick Reference Guide
AWS has many compliance-enabling features that you can use for your regulated workloads in the AWS cloud. These features allow you to achieve a higher level of security at scale. Cloud-based compliance offers a lower cost of entry, easier operations, and improved agility by providing more oversight, security control, and central automation.
The purpose of this paper is to describe how AWS and our customers in the financial services industry achieve operational resilience using AWS services.
Data Classification and Secure Cloud Adoption
This paper provides insight into classification schemes for public and private organizations to leverage when moving data to the cloud. It identifies practices and models currently implemented by global first movers and early adopters, examines how implementation of these schemes can simplify cloud adoption, and recommends practices to harmonize national requirements to internationally recognized standards and frameworks.
AWS Policy Perspectives: Data Residency
This paper addresses: The real and perceived security risks expressed by governments when they demand in-country data residency. Commercial, public sector, and economic impact of in-country data residency policies with a focus on government data. Considerations for governments to evaluate before enforcing requirements that can unintentionally limit public sector digital transformation goals leading to increased cybersecurity risk.
This document is intended to provide information to assist AWS customers with integrating AWS into their existing control framework supporting their IT environment. This document includes a basic approach to evaluating AWS controls and provides information to assist customers with integrating control environments. This document also addresses AWS-specific information around general cloud computing compliance questions.
Guidelines for systematically reviewing and monitoring your AWS resources for security best practices.