As part of an effort to increase penalties for violations of the country’s Personal Information Protection Act, officials in Japan plan to extend liability under that law to individual employees, according to recent reports in The Yomiuri Shimbun and The Japan Times.  Currently, a company that violates the law may be fined or ordered to take remedial steps, and the company head may be imprisoned.  The law revision would come as part of changes to the legal framework accompanying a proposed national identification number system.