Research of Applied Ethics on Establishing Criteria for Setting up CCTV in Public Space

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The aim of this research has been to provide some database of ethical or juristic arguments concerning CCTV, useful for establishing criteria for setting them up in a public space. Our research results are mainly composed of three parts. First, investigations overseas: Asama's asking questions in Tanpere high school in Finland (he also compared these results with those he got from the same questionnaire to Japanese students), Matsuo's interview in Beijing (in which he investigated Chinese students' general attitudes towards social surveillance and privacy rights), and Matsuo's participation in international conference held in Canada (one of the largest conference for privacy sectors in governments and scholars). These investigations are expected to give some broader perspectives to the discussions now conducted in Japan, which seem to have so narrow a viewpoint. Second, Matsuo and a research cooperator, Hibino (graduate school student at Hokkaido University) investigated the committee which was organized for establishing a guideline for setting up CCTV in Sapporo city. The committee meetings were held five times in 2007, and we had opportunities to attend them. Committees like this one are increasingly required to involve civic perspectives concerning rights to privacy, and the case in Sapporo was considered a very good example of this, because two citizens were selected among applicants and included in these committee members, which was quite exceptional in Japan. We focused on the actual process of how their opinions were reflected or rejected in forming the guideline, and tried to make clear the essential problems we are likely to have in such a committee. In addition to these investigations, we made a comprehensive survey of books and papers concerning CCTV. Finally, Matsuo wrote a paper on CCTV from the viewpoint of applied ethics, as part of the summary of this research.