Companies Act

A person who has accepted, solicited or promised to accept property benefits in relation to any one of the following matters, in response to a wrongful request, is punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than five million yen:

statement of opinions or exercise of a voting right at a shareholders meeting, general meeting of class shareholders, organizational meeting or organizational meeting of class shareholders, bondholders meeting or creditors meeting;

exercise of the right of a shareholder prescribed in Article 210 or Article 247, Article 297, paragraph (1) or (4), Article 303, paragraph (1) or (2), Article 304, Article 305, paragraph (1) or Article 306, paragraph (1) or (2) (including the cases where these provisions are applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 325), Article 358, paragraph (1), Article 360, paragraph (1) or (2) (including the cases where these provisions are applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 482, paragraph (4)), Article 422, paragraph (1) or (2), Article 426, paragraph (7), Article 433, paragraph (1) or Article 479, paragraph (2), exercise of the right of a shareholder or creditor prescribed in Article 511, paragraph (1) or Article 522, paragraph (1) or exercise of the right of a creditor prescribed in Article 547, paragraph (1) or (3);

exercise of a right of a bondholder whose bonds are less than one-tenth of the total amount of bonds (excluding bonds that have been redeemed);

filing of the action prescribed in Article 828, paragraph (1), Articles 829 through 831, Article 833, paragraph (1), Article 847, paragraph (3) or (5), Article 847-2, paragraph (6) or (8), Article 847-3, paragraph (7) or (9), Article 853, Article 854 or Article 858 (limited to one filed by a shareholder, etc. (meaning a shareholder, etc. as prescribed in Article 847-4, paragraph (2); the same applies in the following item), or creditor of a stock company or a person holding share options or bonds with share options of a stock company); or

intervention of a shareholder, etc. in a suit under the provisions of Article 849, paragraph (1).

The provisions of the preceding paragraph also apply to a person who has given, offered or promised to give the benefits referred to in that paragraph.

In the cases referred to in Article 967, paragraph (1) or paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, the benefits accepted by the offender are confiscated. When it is not possible to confiscate all or part of the benefits, an equivalent value thereof is collected.

When any one of the persons set forth in Article 960, paragraph (1), items (iii) through (vi) or any other employee of a stock company gives property benefits on the account of the stock company or its subsidiary company in relation to the exercise of a right of a shareholder, right of a qualified former shareholder of the stock company (meaning a qualified former shareholder as prescribed in Article 847-2, paragraph (9); the same applies in paragraph (3)), or right of a shareholder of an ultimate, wholly owning parent company, etc. of the stock company (meaning an ultimate, wholly owning parent company, etc. prescribed in Article 847-3, paragraph (1); the same applies in paragraph (3)), the person is punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than three million yen.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph also apply to a person who has, knowingly, received the benefits referred to in that paragraph or caused the benefits to be given to a third party.

The provisions of paragraph (1) also apply to a person who has requested the person prescribed in that paragraph to give to the relevant person who has requested or a third party the benefits referred to in that paragraph on the account of a stock company or its subsidiary company in relation to the exercise of a right of a shareholder, right of a qualified former shareholder of the stock company, or right as a shareholder in the ultimate, wholly owning parent company, etc. of the stock company.

When a person who has committed either of the crimes referred to in the preceding two paragraphs intimidates the person prescribed in paragraph (1) with regard to committing the crime, the former person is punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than five million yen.

A person who has committed any one of the crimes referred to in the preceding three paragraphs may be punished by cumulative imposition of both imprisonment and a fine in light of the circumstances.

When a person who has committed the crime referred to in paragraph (1) surrenders, the punishment may be reduced or the person may be exempted from punishment.

The crimes referred to in Articles 960 through 963, Article 965, Article 966, Article 967, paragraph (1), Article 968, paragraph (1) and paragraph (1) of the preceding Article also apply to persons who committed these crimes outside Japan.

The crimes referred to in Article 967, paragraph (2), Article 968, paragraph (2) and paragraphs (2) through (4) of the preceding Article are governed by Article 2 of the Penal Code (Act No. 45 of 1907).

When the person prescribed in Article 960, Article 961, Articles 963 through 966, Article 967, paragraph (1) or Article 970, paragraph (1) is a corporation, these provisions and the provisions of Article 962 apply respectively to the director, executive officer or any other officer executing business, or the manager who has committed the act.

A person who has violated an order to suspend all or part of the business of electronic public notice investigation (meaning the electronic public notice investigation prescribed in Article 942, paragraph (1); the same applies hereinafter) under the provisions of Article 954 is punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or a fine of not more than one million yen, or both.

A person who falls under any one of the following items is punished by a fine of not more than three hundred thousand yen:

a person who has failed to give notification under the provisions of Article 950 or has given false notification;

a person who, in violation of the provisions of Article 955, paragraph (1), has failed to state or record in an investigation record book, etc. (meaning the investigation record book, etc. prescribed in that paragraph; hereinafter the same applies in this item) the matters prescribed by Ministry of Justice Order concerning electronic public notice investigations prescribed in that paragraph, or has stated or recorded false matters, or who, in violation of the provisions of that paragraph or Article 956, paragraph (2), has failed to preserve an investigation record book, etc.; or

a person who has failed to make a report under the provisions of Article 958, paragraph (1) or has made a false report, or who has refused, obstructed or avoided an inspection under the provisions of that paragraph.

When the representative of a corporation, or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or individual commits any one of the violations referred to in the preceding two Articles with regard to the business of the corporation or individual, not only the offender is punished but also the corporation or individual is punished by the fine prescribed in the respective Articles.