Japan wants to amend its Criminal Code to make industrial spying a crime. Under present laws, a theft case may only be filed if there are goods or money involved. Stealing of vital corporate technology or data is not included.
Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari confirmed on Tuesday a bill is underway to facilitate the filing of criminal cases against corporate spies. The decision to criminalize industrial espionage arose from the recent arrest of a Chinese staff working for Denso Corp.
Yang Luchuan, an engineer who was previously employed by a military firm in China, was caught bringing out a laptop with 130,000 product designs illegally copied from the company's database. The data involved 1,700 types of products ranging from sensors to industrial robots. Included in the stolen information are 208 company secrets.
However, the case against Yang was dropped since the police could not locate where the Chinese engineer sent the stolen information. (more)
