Line Yahoo, the operator of the messenger Line, has decided to complete the network separation from Naver by March 2026, ahead of the original plan, NHK reported.
On the 27th, NHK cited sources saying that Line Yahoo, which received two administrative guidance notices from the Japanese government in March and April due to a large-scale personal information leak issue, is preparing recurrence prevention measures including this plan.
Previously, Line Yahoo decided to sequentially implement network separation from Naver, called "authentication-based," within Japan and its overseas subsidiaries, and to complete all separations by December 2026. However, it is reported that following the Japanese government's administrative guidance, the plan was advanced to finish by March 2026.
Takeshi Idezawa, CEO of Line Yahoo, also stated at the shareholders' meeting on the 18th of this month, "Our company (Line Yahoo) is pushing to complete the authentication-based separation of Naver Cloud and employee systems within fiscal year 2024."
He added, "Our subsidiaries had planned to complete system separation from Naver by fiscal year 2026, but we will set a plan to advance this schedule further."
Line Yahoo shares are approximately 65% owned by A Holdings, a joint venture established by Naver and SoftBank. The ownership ratio of A Holdings is 50% each for SoftBank and Naver.
Line Yahoo plans to include in its recurrence prevention measures a policy to consult with Naver regarding the review of capital relations with Naver, as requested by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Line Yahoo intends to report this plan by the deadline of next month 1st, which was set by the Ministry.
Last year, it was announced that there was a possibility of leakage of about 510,000 personal information records from Line Yahoo, and subsequently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications demanded countermeasures through two administrative guidances in March and April. This also led to controversy as the Ministry requested a review of capital relations with Line Yahoo.
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