How to prove your online signature

Author: (Japanese) Takatoshi Naito, translated by Wu Ren, Ge Qiwei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: In today's era of globalization, especially after China's entry into the World Trade Organization, aligning with international standards in legislation has become an indispensable national policy and trend to facilitate China's faster integration with the world. In recent years, the Internet has developed rapidly, and e-commerce, which utilizes computers and network systems as its application platforms, has also expanded swiftly. The emergence of this new form of transaction has simultaneously brought about issues that traditional legal systems cannot address, making the development of legal frameworks in the e-commerce field an urgent priority. One of the key characteristics of the e-commerce field is that it is borderless, making it essential to study foreign legislative examples and understand foreign legislative models. In recent years, domestic research on legal issues in the e-commerce field and on electronic signature legislation has been quite active, and the publication of translated books on the subject has been numerous. However, books introducing Japan's electronic signature legislation are relatively scarce. Japan and China are neighbors separated by a narrow strip of water, with close economic ties. Japan follows the civil law system, while China's legal system, although unique in structure, has been significantly influenced by the civil law system. Japan passed the "Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Services" (commonly referred to as the "Electronic Signature Act") in May 2000, which came into effect in April 2001. This law has many features that are not found in the legislation of other countries. Therefore, understanding Japan's electronic signature legislation is highly meaningful. This book provides an introduction and explanation of Japan's "Electronic Signature Act," but its content is not limited to Japanese legislation alone. It also covers related issues around electronic signatures, such as the technical framework of electronic signatures, the significance of electronic signature legislation, and the legislative models and trends of electronic signatures in countries worldwide, with the "Model Law on Electronic Commerce" of the United Nations as a prominent example. After clarifying the background and focus of Japan's electronic signature legislation, the book delves into some of the key issues in the "Electronic Signature Act." The structure of the book progresses from broad to specific, with content that gradually becomes more in-depth, and the language and terminology are creatively designed to avoid the tendency of legal texts to be filled with dense technical jargon. As a legal text, the book is rare in its accessibility and ease of understanding. One of the motivations behind its translation into Chinese is precisely this. In Japan, the book has readers who are scholars specializing in network law and electronic signature legislation, as well as general readers who find it a popular and informative read. We hope that this book will serve as a valuable resource for a broad domestic audience seeking to understand issues related to Japan's electronic signature legislation.