Can I legally record a persons license plate?

Hello guys and ladies,

When driving in Japan and I have a recording device attached to my vehicle, is the recording of people's faces and license plate legal, I would assume so if driving on the public road and such with it being in a public place.

But if I want to upload that video to a social media channel, is that still okay.
I know that some Japanese feel as though at least license plates should be blurred - is this a rule per say or just the beliefs of certain Japanese people that consider privacy high on their values list.

I know by uploading a video without faces or plates being blurred, may cause a few negative comments from native Japanese people, but am I actually braking any rules per say by doing this?

Your advice in advance is much appreciated.

Kind regards.

Thedriveproject

As far as I know you cannot post pictures of random people that you haven�ft asked for their consent.
Mobile phones in Japan are reportedly soaks with a sound function that cannot be turned off when making a picture with the idea that out will alert the person of whom you take a picture that you took one. (Obviously in reality this doesn�ft really work).

https://law.photography/law/street-photography-laws-in-japan

No expert.

But people roam around Ja[an all the time fliming stuff with people in it. And no one has to get consent from the 100s of people in the background.

Even the above linked webpage says only need premission if photography is a portrait. And dont display the subjects in a negative light. eg drunk or naked etc etc.

A number plate though makes a person identifible. Highly unlikely, but someone may contact you and ask you to remove the video. This would be their legal right. And you most likely have to do so. Or they may sue. The likely event of this happen is fairly slim. But if you are posting it online, you open yourself up to comments and criticisms from unwanted directions. Just blur the number plates if they are legible in the video.

Different rules for different countries. But most follow very similar laws.

Exposing other people's faces and personal information to the public without permission is something you can be sued against in almost any country, for being against right of publicity. Way before the Internet, a Japanese company I worked for almost got sued by a person living in the U.S. So, technically speaking, it's illegal.

Is it tolerated, then? Well, most people don't bother to pay their money to file law suits. But, especially ever since the Internet became such a common thing, at least people in Japan have become very intolerant about having their personal info being uploaded without permission. This is mainly due to the fact that tracking someone down has become increasingly easy because of the Internet: You can easily stalk or abuse a person through the subtle information you find on the World Wide Web.

Take a look at Google Street View, for example. As far as I know, in any country, Street View has blurred all license plates and faces. If I were you, I wouldn't want to get someone in trouble for a random video I upload on the Internet. If you must upload without blurring, make sure you share it only among your friends you can trust.

Being "almost sued" doesn't mean that it is illegal. You need to know the laws to know if something is illegal.

In America (since others mentioned it), it is not illegal to post license plate numbers. Anything you can see from public is fair game. You don't need permission from anyone to post it.

I don't know the laws about this in Japan but I wouldn't be surprised if they're more restrictive than the US.

Being in a public place and being in a photograph does not make it legal to take the photo/video, but publishing it does make the legality or otherwise more important.
I have seen various references to the illegality of taking photos of people in public places before and I was prompted by a recent question on the JG forums to re-look at it. The short answer is that is it unclear - I could not find a specific law covering the issue or a definitive answer one way or another (and it was a casual hunt for an answer, not a detailed legal deep dive into Japanese legislation). But, as other posters have pointed out, posting photos online (publishing) without permission does expose you to potential legal issues. If that also applies to something like a number-plate, given plates in Japan are not unique, possibly less of an issue.
I suppose the related question is what are you doing with the recording/information. If it was private use, like all the recorders that people use in the event of an accident/event/insurance, that seems pretty reasonable. If it is for something else, depends what that something else is.