The Voice Behind the Tranquility--Another Trust That Trash Protects (February 2004)

The Voice Behind the Tranquility--Another Trust That Trash Protects (February 2004)

In 2004, Japan was about to enter deeply into the age of information. Ahead of the full enforcement of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, society was becoming increasingly fearful of "what is known" and more conscious of "what should be protected. In the midst of such a swell of the times, the seemingly unrelated waste management industry was quietly rewriting its common sense.

At the end of 2003, Shizuoka Prefecture-based waste disposal company Chusai became the first in the industry to obtain ISMS certification. It was the moment when a processing company, neither an IT company nor a bank, came forward as the "last guardian of information. Contracts, processing slips, collection routes---behind the waste, corporate secrets and personal lives were seeping out.

Chu-Sai did not allow any employee not involved in the business to have access to the information, and thoroughly controlled the handling of information, including collection routes and disposal certificates. This attitude was an expression of the company's determination to treat waste as something to be "protected" rather than "burned.

Privacy in waste" is a phrase that is neither overly ethical nor idealistic. These words were neither overly ethical nor idealistic. They were a sure sign of the will of those who quietly support trust behind the scenes of the information society. The weight of that trust was quietly living deep within the trash heap.