JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Shinya Tago, Atsushi Fukasawa, Hiroshi Iida and Landry Guesdon, Iwata Godo Law Offices
3.2 Bribery, Influence Peddling and Related Offences General Various statutes prohibit bribery and classify it as a crime, as follows: • the PC sets out the general prohibition on bribery of Japanese public officers; • the CA prohibits bribery with respect to directors; • the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA) pro - hibits the bribery of foreign public officers; and • the Act on Punishment of Public Officials’ Profit - ing by Exerting Influence prohibits the bribery of members of parliament, the diet, etc. In addition, the Political Funds Control Act and the Public Officers Election Act regulate political contri - butions. The National Service Act and the National Public Ser - vice Ethics Act regulate the conduct of national public servants and their receipt of benefits from certain per - sons and organisations. The National Public Service Ethics Board provides guidance in the code of ethics for national public officials regarding gifts, hospital - ity and other business courtesies, and concerning facilitation payments in an administrative disciplinary context. Public Officials The PC prohibits a public official from accepting, soliciting or promising to accept a bribe in connec - tion with their duties. It also prohibits a person from giving, offering or promising to give a bribe to a public official. Employees of state-owned or state-controlled entities – such as the Bank of Japan, national universi - ties and Japan Tobacco – are usually deemed to be public officials and are subject to the bribery provi - sions of the PC or similar provisions under special laws. Intention to commit the offence (awareness of the bribe) is required. Unless otherwise provided, the maximum prison term for a person found guilty of bribery is 20 years under the PC. A public officer found guilty of receiving a bribe, excluding specified offences, may be punished with imprisonment with work for a term not exceeding five years. For the specified offences, acceptance of a
bribe on request by a public officer may be punished with imprisonment with work for not more than seven years; if the public officer consequently acts illegally or refrains from acting in the exercise of their duty, the prison term will be increased by one to 20 years. A person found guilty of giving, offering or promising to give a bribe may be punished with imprisonment with work for not more than three years or a fine of not more than JPY2.5 million. A person who jointly commits the crime of bribery or induces another to do so may be punished as severely as the principal. An accessory to its commission is subject to a lesser punishment. Foreign Public Officials Japan is a party to the OECD Convention on Combat - ing Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The UCPA prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign public officials for the purpose of having them act or refrain from acting in a particular way in relation to their duties, or of having them use their position to influence another foreign public official to act or refrain from acting in a particular way to make illicit gains from international business transactions (Article 18 (1)). A violation is subject to imprisonment of up to ten years and/or a fine of up to JPY30 million. If an indi - vidual who violates the UCPA’s foreign bribery provi - sion is an employee, agent, officer or director of a company and the bribe is made in connection with the company’s business, the company can be subject to a fine of up to JPY1 billion. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has published best practice guidelines entitled “Guidelines for the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials”. Private Commercial Bribery No general law prohibits commercial bribery among private persons, but bribery of board members of companies is a crime under the CA. Directors or statu - tory auditors are prohibited from accepting or solicit - ing property benefits in connection with their duties,
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