Can the Right to Privacy Become an Obstacle for Artistic Creation?
For frequent viewers of Japanese TV shows, the widespread use of blurring people and whole neighborhoods out can be quite noticeable. When shows take to the streets, interviewing people or following them to their homes and workplaces, everyone and everything that are not the subjects of the shows is pixelated to mask identities. The widespread use of visual disguise is a result of strict Japanese laws on privacy protection, which require that individuals only be displayed after receiving explicit consent from them to do so. For a crowded street, asking the passerby one by one is impracticable, so better blur the whole thing out.