It is obvious today that search engines play a crucial role in information distribution on the Internet. In the meantime, however, the semi-permanence of and easy accessibility to each online expression have increasingly caused severe exposure of one’s privacy online. In light of this situation, the European Court of Justice held in Google Spain v. AEPD(*1), the landmark case in this legal arena, that a citizen had a right to privacy in his past economic troubles, accepting in effect the “right to be forgotten”, followed by the effectuation of the General Data Protection Rule, which explicitly stipulates the “right to erasure”. In contrast, the United States has historically put greater emphasis on freedom of speech than privacy(*2). Speaking of Japan, many decisions by lower courts had been made since 2014 in response to claims against search engine operators for removal of particular search results which contained plaintiffs’ privacy information, but the decisions by the courts were divided over this issue until the first decision by the Supreme Court (the “Decision”)(*3) was made in January 2017. In the case presented to the Supreme Court, the plaintiff claimed against Google for the removal of the search results (titles and snippets) of the websites which had uncovered his arrest record for child prostitution and pornography three years prior to the filing of lawsuit. The court rejected the claim in conclusion, and therefore, the Decision was widely broadcast as “the first decision by the Supreme Court which refused the right to be forgotten”. Below are some of the key points of this landmark decision in Japan.