JAPAN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Makoto Hattori, Rikita Karakawa, Wataru Takagishi and Taku Shibazaki, Abe, Ikubo & Katayama
a “self-serving crime intended to seek profit by ena - bling a Chinese company to mass-produce fluorine compounds”, stating “while the utilization of foreign talent with advanced skills and knowledge is empha - sized, if situations like this occur, concerns may also arise regarding the discipline of the activities of for - eign talent”. This is highly significant in showing that technology leakage through academic and research institutions can also be strictly punished. On 20 January 2026, a former employee of a machine tool manufacturer was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the UCPA (disclosure of trade secrets) for allegedly disclosing their employer’s trade secrets to a former official of the Russian Trade Representation in Japan (an individual suspected to be associated with Russian intelligence agencies). Reported within in a context suggesting espionage, this reinforced awareness that the UCPA provides for the punishment of extraterritorial offences and heavy penalties for overseas crimes, and that, depending on the circumstances, providing information to foreign government officials can also represent a “purpose of unfair gain” (necessary for a violation of the UCPA to be established). Finally, in February 2026, a case was reported in which a former employee was arrested on suspicion of violat - ing the UCPA (infringement of trade secrets) for alleg - edly duplicating approximately 300,000 items (roughly 270GB), including design drawings for injection mold - ing machines and new product specifications, onto a private HDD while in the office, and then subsequently switching employment to a Chinese company. Injec - tion molding machines are a field in which Japanese companies possess strong international competitive - ness, and they have therefore attracted attention from the perspective of economic security. Unauthorised removal of information by secondees at major life insurance companies From September 2025 to January 2026, this issue became apparent when several cases were uncov - ered in succession at major life insurance companies (such as Nippon Life, Dai-ichi Life, and Meiji Yasuda Life) where employees on secondment procured and withdrew internal information without authorisation. Although each company published the results of
internal investigations, they also explained that the acts in question did not constitute an infringement of trade secrets due to insufficient secrecy management, etc, and, consequently, none of the cases developed into lawsuits. However, such an extremely large vol - ume of information was procured and removed over a long period, affecting such prominent companies, that the issue became a social one, triggering discus - sion around “what constitutes a trade secret” and the “boundary between custom and illegality”. The Nidec (formerly Nippon Densan) trade secret provision case In November 2025, in a lawsuit for damages regarding the leakage of trade secrets filed by major Japanese motor manufacturer Nidec (formerly Nippon Densan Corporation) against a former employee and Toyo Kei - zai Inc., the Tokyo District Court ordered the former employee to pay JPY2.75 million. According to the judgment, it was recognised that the former employee provided a reporter with approval documents contain - ing information on management and personnel, and an article containing said information was published on Toyo Keizai Online. While the court affirmed the responsibility of the former employee, an insider who leaked the trade secrets, it denied the news organisa - tion’s liability for damages under the UCPA, finding that a “purpose of obtaining an unfair gain” or “pur - pose of causing injury” under the UCPA could not be established. This case drew significant social inter - est due to the inclusion of a news organisation as a defendant. 3. The Reality of Trade Secret Management in Japanese Companies Revealed by the Publication of the IPA Survey Based on the “Survey on Trade Secret Management in Companies 2024” published by the Information Tech - nology Promotion Agency (IPA) on 29 August 2025, the deepening problem of trade secret infringement in Japanese companies has become clear. • Percentage of organisations recognising trade secret leakage and trends in the amount of damage – the proportion of organisations that recognised a leakage of trade secrets within the past five years stood at 35.5%, a sharp increase from 5.2% in the 2020 survey.
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