On the Deposit of the Instrument of Acceptance of the "Convention on Cybercrime"

July 4, 2012
Japanese

On Tuesday, July 3 (local time), the Government of Japan deposited the Instrument of Acceptance on the “Convention on Cybercrime” to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (in Strasbourg). With the deposition of the instrument, the Convention will become effective for Japan from November 1, 2012.
The Convention aims at protecting society from cybercrimes, which have been increasing along with the recent developments of information technology, and provides provisions such as criminalization of illegal access and other certain acts to a computer system, preparation of criminal procedures for expeditious preservation of computer data, and international cooperation concerning extradition of criminals.
The Government of Japan will, taking the opportunity of conclusion of the Convention, further strengthen international cooperation concerning investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes in order to improve information security, ensure reliability, and protect the profits of the people including robust economic activities in cyberspace.

[Reference] Convention on Cybercrime

Adopted on November 8, 2001, at the Council of Europe. A signing ceremony was held on November 23, 2001 in Budapest, Hungary, and the Convention became effective on July 1, 2004.
Number of state parties to the Convention as of the end of June 2012 is 35 (including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, etc.).
The Government of Japan signed the Convention at the above-mentioned signing ceremony and obtained Diet approval in April 2004. The Convention will become effective for Japan from November 1, the first day of the month after the date of expiration of a three-month period following the deposit of the instrument of acceptance, as provided by the Convention.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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