Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds

• Stricter verification applies to these transactions: those a Cabinet Order names where the customer is suspected of posing as the customer or representative verified in an earlier related transaction, or of having lied in that verification; transactions of the kinds the Appended Table lists with customers living or based in a country or region a Cabinet Order names as lacking adequate measures against moving the proceeds of crime, or moving property to someone there; and other transactions a Cabinet Order names as calling for especially strict customer checks. The business verifies the matters of ordinary verification (Article 4(1)), and where impersonation or lying is suspected it checks identity by a different method from the one used in the earlier verification. Where the property moved is worth more than an amount a Cabinet Order sets, it also verifies the customer's assets and income (except for judicial scriveners), as far as needed to decide whether the transaction must be reported as suspicious.(Art. 4(1), Art. 4(2), Art. 4(2)(i), Art. 4(2)(ii), Art. 4(2)(iii), Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
• Customers and the individuals carrying out a transaction for them must not give false information about the matters being verified. Until they go along with the verification, the business may refuse to perform its obligations under the transaction.(Art. 4(6), Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A business must make a record of each verification (確認記録) at once and keep it for seven years from the day the contract ends or another day the joint order sets. It must also record at once each transaction in its covered business — for judicial scriveners, administrative scriveners, accountants and tax accountants, each act for a client the Act covers — except small ones and others a Cabinet Order names, and keep that record for seven years from the transaction. It is to take measures to keep the information it verified up to date, and to try to train its staff, set internal rules, appoint someone to oversee these measures and take the other measures the joint order sets in light of the risk assessment.(Art. 6(1), Art. 6(2), Art. 7(1), Art. 7(2), Art. 7(3), Art. 11(1), Art. 11(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A business other than judicial scriveners, administrative scriveners, accountants and tax accountants (whose reporting the exceptions below cover) must judge, for each transaction in its covered business, whether property it received may be proceeds of crime, or the customer may be committing an offence under Article 10 of the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes (組織的犯罪処罰法) or Article 6 of the Anti-Drug Special Provisions Act (麻薬特例法), both separate Acts; if so, it must promptly report it to its supervising authority (疑わしい取引の届出). It judges by a method the joint order sets, weighing the verification results, the transaction's circumstances and the risk assessment (犯罪収益移転危険度調査書) the National Public Safety Commission publishes every year. No business, officer or employee may tell the customer or anyone connected with them that a report is planned or has been made.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(3), Art. 8(4), Art. 2(1), Art. 3(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Banks, shinkin banks, cooperatives and the other institutions in items 1 to 15 of Article 2(2), and fund-transfer businesses, must check before agreeing to make remittances continually with a foreign remittance business that it has the offices, staff and supervision to take measures equivalent to this Act's and has no such agreement with an unsupervised one; electronic payment instrument businesses and cryptoasset businesses check foreign counterparts in the same way. A business that entrusts a payment abroad to another bank or remittance business must pass on the sender's and recipient's identification data and the other matters the joint order sets, except for countries and regions and for methods, such as cheques, a Cabinet Order excludes; one that sends an electronic payment instrument or cryptoasset to a customer of another such business does the same, except where that business is abroad in a country or region a Cabinet Order excludes. A business that receives such a payment or transfer and passes it on relays the information with it.(Art. 9(1), Art. 10(1), Art. 10(2), Art. 10(3), Art. 10(4), Art. 10-2(1), Art. 10-3(1), Art. 10-3(2), Art. 10-4(1), Art. 10-5(1), Art. 10-5(2)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 12 August 2026

  The text on this site

  Act Partially Amending the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act

  金融商品取引法及び資金決済に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 64 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 23 July 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act

  金融商品取引法及び資金決済に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 64 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 10 July 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds

  犯罪による収益の移転防止に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 34 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 January 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist Act

  行政書士法の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 65 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Freezing, etc. of Assets of International Terrorists Implemented by Japan in Light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, etc., and Other Acts, to Address the Movement of Illicit International Funds, etc.

  国際的な不正資金等の移動等に対処するための国際連合安全保障理事会決議第千二百六十七号等を踏まえ我が国が実施する国際テロリストの財産の凍結等に関する特別措置法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 97 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Freezing, etc. of Assets of International Terrorists Implemented by Japan in Light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, etc., and Other Acts, to Address the Movement of Illicit International Funds, etc.

  国際的な不正資金等の移動等に対処するための国際連合安全保障理事会決議第千二百六十七号等を踏まえ我が国が実施する国際テロリストの財産の凍結等に関する特別措置法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 97 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Payment Services Act, etc. to Establish a Stable and Efficient Funds Settlement System

  安定的かつ効率的な資金決済制度の構築を図るための資金決済に関する法律等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 61 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 29 December 2022

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Freezing, etc. of Assets of International Terrorists Implemented by Japan in Light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, etc., and Other Acts, to Address the Movement of Illicit International Funds, etc.

  国際的な不正資金等の移動等に対処するための国際連合安全保障理事会決議第千二百六十七号等を踏まえ我が国が実施する国際テロリストの財産の凍結等に関する特別措置法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 97 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 November 2022

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Handling of Legal Services by Foreign Lawyers

  外国弁護士による法律事務の取扱いに関する特別措置法の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 33 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 26 amendments already in force

• Lawyers (弁護士, including registered foreign lawyers) and law firms are specified businesses, but the duties the Act places on specified businesses from Article 4 on do not bind them. Instead, the rules of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (日本弁護士連合会) set measures for them equivalent to verification, verification and transaction records and the steps that support them, on the model of those for judicial scriveners, and a lawyer may refuse to perform until a client goes along with that verification. Reporting suspicious transactions is not among those measures.(Art. 2(2)(xlv), Art. 4(1), Art. 12(1), Art. 12(2), Art. 8(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Judicial scriveners do not report suspicious transactions. Administrative scriveners, certified public accountants and tax accountants report on their covered work for clients, but not where the report would include what Article 12 of the Administrative Scriveners Act, Article 27 of the Certified Public Accountants Act or Article 38 of the Certified Public Tax Accountant Act, separate Acts, forbid them to disclose.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(2), Art. 8(2)(i), Art. 8(2)(ii), Art. 8(2)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Ordinary verification is not repeated for transactions a Cabinet Order names, or treats as equivalent, with a customer the business has already verified in another transaction, where it made and kept the verification record. The stricter verification still applies.(Art. 4(3), Art. 4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where the customer is the state, a local government, an association or foundation without legal personality, or another body a Cabinet Order names, and an individual carries out the transaction for it, that individual's identification data is verified in place of the customer's. For the state and the other bodies that is all; for an association or foundation without legal personality, the purpose of the transaction and its business are verified too.(Art. 4(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Bank of Japan, a specified business as a book-entry transfer institution, is not subject to on-site inspection under the Act.(Art. 16(4), Art. 2(2)(xxxiv)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027, the verification, transaction-record and suspicious-transaction rules do not apply to transactions on covert police accounts. The offences of trading in account details and of moving money for others do not apply to what police officers do in the covert-account scheme or to prepare it, and the offences of handing over account details do not apply to a business handing the police the passbook or details of a covert account it opened. Chapters 2 to 4 of the Act on Payment of Damage Recovery Distributions from Funds in Deposit Accounts Used for Crime (Act No. 133 of 2007), a separate Act, do not apply to covert accounts either.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 19-28(1), Art. 19-28(2), Art. 19-28(3), Art. 19-28(4)) (the provisions it rests on)

• Each kind of business has its own supervising authority (行政庁): for most financial businesses and for accountants, the Prime Minister, who delegates most of those powers to the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency; for others a Minister (some jointly with the Prime Minister or another Minister), a prefectural governor, a prefectural public safety commission or the Casino Regulatory Commission; and, for the checks on foreign counterparts and the notification duties on payments and transfers (other than electronic payment instrument and cryptoasset transfers made wholly within Japan), the Minister of Finance as well. As far as needed to apply the Act, the authority may require reports and documents, have its officials enter a business's premises to inspect its books and question people — a power not granted for criminal investigation — and, where it considers it necessary, give guidance, advice and recommendations. Where the National Public Safety Commission finds a business in breach, it may urge the authority to order a correction or, where another law allows, to suspend the business or impose another sanction; to that end it may require the business to report and direct prefectural police to investigate, and where especially needed the police may, with the Commission's prior approval, enter the business's premises to inspect its books and question people.(Art. 22(1), Art. 22(2), Art. 22(4), Art. 22(5), Art. 15(1), Art. 16(1), Art. 16(3), Art. 17(1), Art. 19(1), Art. 19(2), Art. 19(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a business breaks its duties to verify, keep records, report suspicious transactions and keep reports secret, or its duties on foreign correspondent contracts, payments abroad and transfers of electronic payment instruments and cryptoassets, its supervising authority may order it to correct the breach (是正命令); breaking that order is punished by up to 2 years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both. Failing to report or reporting falsely to the authority or the National Public Safety Commission, refusing to answer or answering falsely when questioned in an inspection, or refusing, obstructing or evading an inspection, is punished by up to 1 year's imprisonment, a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both. Where these offences, or lying about identification data in a verification, are committed in the business of a company or an individual employer, the company is also fined up to 300 million yen, up to 200 million yen and up to 5 million yen respectively, and the individual employer as each offence's article provides.This is the rule until the change takes effect, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 18(1), Art. 33(1), Art. 34(1), Art. 34(1)(i), Art. 34(1)(ii), Art. 35(1), Art. 35(1)(i), Art. 35(1)(ii), Art. 35(1)(iii), Art. 25(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a business breaks its duties to verify, keep records, report suspicious transactions and keep reports secret, or its duties on foreign correspondent contracts, payments abroad and transfers of electronic payment instruments and cryptoassets, its supervising authority may order it to correct the breach (是正命令); breaking that order is punished by up to 2 years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both. Failing to report or reporting falsely to the authority or the National Public Safety Commission, refusing to answer or answering falsely when questioned in an inspection, or refusing, obstructing or evading an inspection, is punished by up to 1 year's imprisonment, a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both. Where these offences, or lying about identification data in a verification, are committed in the business of a company or an individual employer, the company is also fined up to 300 million yen, up to 200 million yen and up to 5 million yen respectively, and the individual employer as each offence's article provides (a rule that moves to Article 36 on a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027).This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 18(1), Art. 33(1), Art. 34(1), Art. 34(1)(i), Art. 34(1)(ii), Art. 36(1), Art. 36(1)(i), Art. 36(1)(ii), Art. 36(1)(iii), Art. 25(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Suspicious-transaction reports reach the National Public Safety Commission, through the competent Minister where a prefectural governor or public safety commission received them. The Commission collects and analyses them and gives the information to prosecutors, police, and tax, customs, designated fair trade and securities surveillance officials where it would help investigate the crimes the Act names under the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and the Anti-Drug Special Provisions Act. It may also give it to foreign bodies doing the same work, provided it is used only for their duties and, without the Commission's consent, not in a foreign criminal investigation or trial.(Art. 8(5), Art. 8(6), Art. 3(2), Art. 13(1), Art. 14(1), Art. 14(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Lying about identification data in a verification, in order to hide the customer's or representative's identity, is punished by up to 3 years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 5 million yen, or both.(Art. 25(1), Art. 4(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Obtaining a bank passbook, cash card, the information needed to withdraw or transfer deposits, or another thing a Cabinet Order names, in order to use a deposit account, or let a third party use it, while posing as someone else — or obtaining one for payment without a legitimate reason such as ordinary commercial or financial dealings, or handing one over knowing of that aim or for payment without such a reason — is punished by up to 3 years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 5 million yen, or both, and doing any of this as a business by up to 5 years, a fine of up to 10 million yen, or both. Soliciting or advertising for others to do any of it carries the 3-year penalty. The same rules cover the cards and information needed to use fund-transfer services, high-value prepaid payment instruments, electronic payment instruments, electronic payment agency services and cryptoasset accounts.(Art. 26(1), Art. 26(2), Art. 26(3), Art. 26(4), Art. 27(1), Art. 28(1), Art. 29(1), Art. 30(1), Art. 31(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Asking someone, for payment and without a legitimate reason such as ordinary commercial or financial dealings, to move property using deposit, payment or cryptoasset services, or to pass on to others what they receive through them, in order to move property that one manages or means to manage, or a third party does, is punished by up to 2 years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both, as is advertising for it. Making such a transfer for payment knowing of that aim, or offering to make one, carries the same penalty, and asking or transferring as a business up to 3 years, a fine of up to 5 million yen, or both.(Art. 32(1), Art. 32(2), Art. 32(3), Art. 32(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027, police officers, directed by their prefectural police chief, may ask banks and the other account-holding businesses, on showing their police identification and a document National Public Safety Commission Rules (国家公安委員会規則) set, to open covert accounts (犯罪利用防止措置用口座等) for the police. Where an officer finds someone soliciting or advertising, without a legitimate reason, for others to hand over passbooks, cards or account details, or asking or advertising for others to move money through accounts for payment, and it is needed to stop accounts being used for crime, the officer, so directed, may hand that person a covert account's passbook, card or details, take on the transfer and give the details for receiving money into a covert account, or take other steps using covert accounts. As far as needed, the officer may hide or misstate being a police officer and that the account is a covert police account.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 19-2(1), Art. 19-3(1), Art. 19-3(1)(i), Art. 19-3(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027, the prefectural police chief keeps whatever is paid into a covert account, or to an officer, in the scheme and returns it promptly and without interest to whoever paid it, at that person's cost and less, where the chief so decides, what that person moved out of the covert account or had an officer move out of it at their request; where a risk of hindering the scheme or a criminal investigation, a pending lawsuit or another listed circumstance stands in the way, it is returned once that has passed. Before returning it, the chief checks that the claimant is the one entitled, and may require reports or documents from them and have officers question them, a power not granted for criminal investigation; a false report, document or answer is punished by a fine of up to 500,000 yen. The right to its return lapses if no one entitled, or no address for them, has been found six months after a public notice (not counting the time such a circumstance lasted), or if it is waived.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 19-5(1), Art. 19-6(1), Art. 19-6(3), Art. 19-6(4), Art. 19-6(5), Art. 19-8(1), Art. 19-9(1), Art. 19-9(2), Art. 19-9(3), Art. 19-10(1), Art. 35(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027, once the right to its return has lapsed, property that came into a covert account from another account is paid out by the prefectural public safety commission, at the police chief's request, to people (or their heirs) who lost property when a fraud or other crime against property made them pay into that other account, and who apply within the period a public notice sets, at least 30 days (特定被害回復給付金). Nothing is paid to a victim whose whole loss someone else has made good, to anyone who carried out or took part in the crime or gained unlawfully from it, to anyone whose loss came from their own unlawful cause, or to others it would be socially inappropriate to pay. No payment procedure is opened where the property is worth no more than its expected cost as National Public Safety Commission Rules (国家公安委員会規則) set it.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 19-11(1)(iii), Art. 19-12(1), Art. 19-12(2), Art. 19-13(1), Art. 19-14(1), Art. 19-15(2), Art. 19-15(3), Art. 19-16(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 9 June 2027, the prefectural public safety commission may order applicants for a victim payment and others concerned to report, produce documents or appear before it, and may collect back, in the way unpaid local taxes are collected, a payment obtained by deceit or other wrongful means. Submitting a false application, supporting document or notification, or a false report or document that an applicant or notifier was ordered to give, is punished by a fine of up to 500,000 yen. A person who disagrees with the commission's ruling on a payment or its decision to close the procedure may ask the commission to review it within 30 days, or later where there is a legitimate reason.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 9 June 2027 at the latest.(Art. 19-18(1), Art. 19-20(1), Art. 35(1)(ii), Art. 35(1)(iii), Art. 35(1)(iv), Art. 19-25(1), Art. 19-25(2)) (the provisions it rests on)