Targeting Korea?
The Japanese government is amending its laws to punish attempted trade secret theft. Experts point out that this is targeting mainly Korean companies in that a number of them, including POSCO, SK Hynix, and Hanwha, are engaged in lawsuits in Japan on this issue.
At present, criminal penalties are possible only when the fact that a trade secret was misused is supported by evidence. However, even an attempt will be able to be punished according to the revision plan of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Also, trade secret acquisition by means of e-mails with viruses or hacking of a personal computer for information storage are predicted to be included in the category of punishable acts, along with those who are given a trade secret without being directly involved.
The punishments are expected to become more severe, too. The Ministry is going to increase the maximum prison term for overseas trade secret transfers from 10 years to 15 years. In addition, the penalty imposed on individuals and corporations stealing a trade secret will be raised from 10 million yen (US$84,786) to 50 million yen (US$423,863) and from 300 million yen (US$2.54 million) to 600 million yen (US$5.09 million), respectively.