Japan Enacts Revised Laws to Stop Industrial Espionage by Foreigners

Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Diet enacted Tuesday bills to
revise the foreign exchange and unfair competition prevention laws in a bid
to prevent short-stay visitors to the country from stealing secret technical
and other information from Japanese companies.
The bills were approved at a plenary session of the House of
Representatives.
The revised foreign exchange law requires advance government
authorization for all cross-border transactions of Japanese technologies
that can be diverted to military use. It also restricts export of recording
media that contain information on such technologies.
Those who export products that can be used for weapons of mass
destruction without government permission will face a prison term of up to
10 years under the revised law, compared with up to five years under the old
legislation.
By amending the unfair competition prevision law, Japan will newly
punish those who take out copies of confidential information from Japanese
companies without authorization and those who disclose such information with
the intent to cause damage to the companies concerned.
The law amendments came after a Chinese employee of Japanese auto
parts maker Denso Corp. <6902> was arrested last year for taking out a
laptop computer containing massive products information downloaded from the
firm's database without permission.