Published on January 30, 2020. Using a Sankei Shimbun editorial prompted by the arrest of a former SoftBank employee over the leakage of confidential information, this article discusses the problem that Japan has no law directly criminalizing espionage itself. It points to the severity of espionage laws in the United States and France, the failure of Japan’s past anti-espionage bill, the limitations of the Specially Designated Secrets Protection Act, and the need for a full-fledged intelligence agency in Japan.

January 30, 2020
Moreover, espionage crimes in foreign countries are generally serious offenses. The maximum penalty under Article 794 of the United States Code is death, and Articles 72 and 73 of the French Penal Code provide for life imprisonment.
The following is from yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun editorial.
This editorial, too, proved that the most decent newspaper today is the Sankei Shimbun.
The passages marked with ～ are mine.
Do Not Leave Japan as a Paradise for Spies
A former employee of the major telecommunications company SoftBank was arrested by the Public Security Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, after allegedly passing confidential information to a former official of the Russian Trade Representation in Japan.
The Russian side is said to have approached him systematically while pretending it was by chance, repeatedly entertaining him at restaurants and providing cash, while continuing to request information.
This is a typical and classical intelligence operation aimed at the company’s advanced technology, but in the first place Japan has no law for exposing espionage activities themselves.
For this reason, Japan has long been mocked as a “paradise for spies.”
In 1985, Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers submitted an “Anti-Espionage Bill” as a lawmaker-sponsored bill, but it was scrapped because of strong opposition from the opposition parties.
Today, anyone would surely infer that the opposition parties strongly opposed it because they themselves were engaged in activities equivalent to those of spies for the Korean Peninsula and China.
In 2013, the “Specially Designated Secrets Protection Act” was enacted, but this, too, does not regulate espionage activities themselves.
As soon as this law was enacted, Shin Sugok, a Zainichi Korean whom the Asahi Shimbun, NHK, and others had heavily used, went into exile in Germany.
The former SoftBank employee was arrested on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, but this is originally a law intended to ensure fair competition in the market.
In response to repeated cases of confidential information being leaked to South Korean companies, a revised law was enacted in 2015, adding “transfer, export, and import of goods infringing trade secrets” and similar acts to the scope of unfair competition, and greatly raising the upper limit of fines, but this is insufficient to deter espionage.
In the 2000 case in which a Maritime Self-Defense Force officer handed over military-related information to a military attaché at the Russian Embassy, and in the 2015 case in which a former Ground Self-Defense Force officer handed over internal GSDF documents to the Russian side, violations of the Self-Defense Forces Act, which stipulates the duty of confidentiality, were applied.
In addition, in past espionage cases, various charges such as theft, breach of trust, violations of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, and violations of the Passport Act have been applied to espionage acts.
This may be called a desperate measure taken because espionage activities themselves cannot be regulated.
Moreover, espionage crimes in foreign countries are generally serious offenses.
The maximum penalty under Article 794 of the United States Code is death, and Articles 72 and 73 of the French Penal Code provide for life imprisonment.
The “Anti-Espionage Bill” that was scrapped also provided for a maximum penalty of “death or life imprisonment.”
The opposition lawmakers, the employees of the Asahi Shimbun and NHK, the so-called citizen groups, the so-called intellectuals, and others probably opposed it because they were afraid of being punished for serious crimes.
In addition, Japan does not have a full-fledged intelligence agency responsible for foreign intelligence and domestic counterintelligence.
The reality is that the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the National Police Agency, the Public Security Intelligence Agency, and others conduct activities separately.
An anti-espionage law is also necessary as the basis for creating a powerful intelligence agency that would oversee these organizations.
There is no reason why Japan should remain forever a “paradise for spies.”