TOKYO: The Finance Ministry plans to seek a law revision to give customs officers the authority to seize and dispose of products that utilize stolen industrial secrets, in an effort to prevent Japanese technologies from being leaked abroad, informed sources said on Wednesday.
Currently, customs officers can only make reports to the industry ministry or police when they discover such products.
The planned customs law revision will also allow them to inspect products that are suspected of utilizing stolen trade secrets.
The revision will complement a revised unfair competition prevention law that was enacted in July and is set to become effective in January.
The ministry plans to submit a bill for the customs law revision during an ordinary session of the Diet next year.
The move follows a recent series of technology leaks overseas, including cases involving Toshiba Corp.’s flash memory technology and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.’s high-grade steel plate technology.
In December last year, the ministry’s Council on Customs, Tariff, Foreign Exchange and Other Transactions recommended stopping imports of products that utilize illegally obtained technologies.
