On May 9, 2025, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) held the 8th meeting of the Working Group on Measures Against Improper Use. The meeting materials (Document 8-7) confirmed that the agenda included discussions on incorporating SMS into the regulatory scope of "specified electronic mail."
The meeting was convened against the backdrop of a growing number of "yami baito" (dark part-time job) recruitment schemes — which are used to recruit accomplices for criminal activities — and special fraud cases carried out via SMS in recent years. The MIC deems it necessary to formally bring SMS within the purview of the "Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail" (commonly known as the Anti-Spam Law). Previously, this law primarily targeted email, leaving a regulatory gap for SMS.
During the discussions, Rakuten Mobile, as a representative carrier, delivered a presentation on its measures to combat special fraud and yami baito, including recommending that users use "Whoscall" — a fraud prevention app with automatic SMS identification functionality. The app can automatically assess the risk level of text messages by analyzing keywords and URLs in their content, and sort them into appropriate folders automatically.
In addition, the meeting materials also referenced a URL scanning feature: when an SMS containing a URL is received, the system automatically scans the URL and notifies the user of its risk level. This indicates that the MIC is systematically evaluating various abuse risks in the SMS domain and advancing the improvement of the regulatory framework.
