Financial Instruments and Exchange Act

A Commission official may collect a storage certificate and have the owner or possessor of a retained object or seized object that is inconvenient to transport or store, or any other person that the Commission official finds to be appropriate, store that object, with the consent of the person in question.

If it becomes unnecessary to keep a retained article, seized article, or recording medium submitted pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in Article 211, paragraph (1), item (i), (a)), a Commission official must return it to the person to whom it should be returned.

If the Commission is unable to return a retained article, seized article, or recording medium referred to in the preceding paragraph because the address or residence of the person to whom it should be returned is unknown or for any other such reason, the Commission must issue public notice of this.

If no request is filed for the return of the retained article, seized article, or recording medium to which the public notice under the provisions of the preceding paragraph concerns after six months have elapsed since the day of the public notice, those articles vest in the national treasury.

If it becomes unnecessary to keep a recording medium set forth in each of the following items, and the person specified in that item is a different person from the owner, possessor, or keeper of the recording medium, a Commission official must deliver the recording medium to the person specified in that item or allow the person to copy the electronic or magnetic records.

a recording medium that was seized after transferring or having a person transfer electronic or magnetic records pursuant to the provisions of Article 211-4: the person subject to the seizure;

a recording medium submitted pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in Article 211, paragraph (1), item (i), (a) (limited to a method by which electronic or magnetic records are transferred to a recording medium); the same applies hereinafter in this item): the person who received an order to provide electronic or magnetic records.

The provisions of paragraph (2) of the preceding Article apply mutatis mutandis to delivery or copying under the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

If no request is filed for the delivery or copying under the provisions of paragraph (1) after six months have elapsed since the day of the public notice under the provisions of paragraph (2) of the preceding Article as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to the preceding paragraph, the Commission official is not required to make the delivery or have the person make the copying.

If the reason for not having the person who received that order to provide electronic or magnetic records store electronic or magnetic records transferred pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in Article 211, paragraph (1), item (i), (b) (limited to a method by which electronic or magnetic records are transferred to a recording medium)) has ceased to exist, a Commission official must, at the request of that person or ex officio, allow that person to copy the electronic or magnetic records.

The provisions of Article 222, paragraph (2) apply mutatis mutandis to copying under the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

If no request for the copying referred to in the preceding paragraph is made after six months have elapsed since the day of the public notice under the provisions of Article 222, paragraph (2) as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to the preceding paragraph, it is not necessary to allow that copying.

If it is necessary for investigating a criminal case, a Commission official may Commission a person with relevant expertise to present an expert opinion with regard to a retained object, seized object, or recording medium submitted or electronic or magnetic records provided pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (referred to as an "article" in the following paragraph and paragraph (6)), or Commission that person to perform interpretation or translation services.

A person that has received a request for an expert opinion under the provisions of the preceding paragraph (referred to as an "expert" in paragraphs (6) and (8)) may destroy the article for which an expert opinion was requested, with the permission of the judge of the district court or summary court that has jurisdiction over the locality of the Commission.

A request for the permission referred to in the preceding paragraph must come from a commission official.

If the request referred to in the preceding paragraph has been made and the judge of the district court or summary court finds the request to be reasonable, the judge must issue a warrant to a Commission official.

A warrant referred to in the preceding paragraph may be in the form of an electronic or magnetic record, as well as in writing, as provided by the Rules of the Supreme Court.

A warrant referred to in paragraph (4) must state or record the name of the suspect in the criminal case (for a corporation, the name of the corporation), the charged offense, the article to be destroyed, the name of the expert, the government position and name of the requester, the date of issuance, the name of the court, and other particulars specified by the Rules of the Supreme Court.

A warrant referred to in paragraph (4) must be one for which the measures specified in each of the following items have been taken in accordance with the category of cases set forth in that item.

If the warrant is in writing: the judge affixes the judge's name and seal;

If the warrant is in the form of an electronic or magnetic record: the judge takes a measure specified by the Rules of the Supreme Court in place of affixing a name and seal (limited to one by which, when the particulars recorded in the warrant are displayed on the screen of a computer, on paper, or on another thing, the judge's name is also displayed).

An expert must take, with respect to the person subject to the disposition under paragraph (2), the measure specified in each of the following items in accordance with the category of cases set forth in that item.

If the warrant referred to in paragraph (4) is in writing: showing the warrant referred to in that paragraph;

If the warrant referred to in paragraph (4) is an electronic or magnetic record: showing, in accordance with Cabinet Office Order, the particulars recorded in the warrant referred to in that paragraph and the name of that judge relating to the measure under the provisions of the preceding paragraph (limited to the part pertaining to item (ii)), by displaying them on the screen of a computer, on paper, or on another thing.

Upon completing an investigation of a criminal case, a Commission official must report the results of the investigation to the Commission.

With the approval of the Commission, the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau is to designate persons who will be in charge of investigations of criminal cases from among the officials of a Local Finance Bureau or a Local Finance Branch Bureau.

A person designated by the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph (hereinafter referred to as the "official of a Local Finance Bureau, etc." in this Chapter) is deemed to be a Commission official, and the provisions of Article 210 through the preceding Article apply. In such a case, the term "of the Commission" in Article 211, paragraphs (1) and (3) is deemed to be replaced with "of the Local Finance Bureau or Local Finance Branch Bureau to which the official belongs", the term "Commission" in Article 222, paragraph (2) is deemed to be replaced with "the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau", the term "Commission" in Article 222-4, paragraph (2) is deemed to be replaced with "the Local Finance Bureau or the Local Finance Branch Bureau to which the official of a Local Finance Bureau, etc. prescribed in Article 224, paragraph (2) who is deemed to be a Commission official referred to in the preceding paragraph pursuant to the provisions of Article 224, paragraph (2) belongs", and the term "to the Commission" in the preceding Article is deemed to be replaced with "to the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau".

If the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau receives a report from the official of a Local Finance Bureau, etc. under the provisions of the preceding Article as applied pursuant to the preceding paragraph following the deemed replacement of terms, the Director-General must report the content of the report to the Commission.

The Commission guides and supervises the Director-General of a Local Finance Bureau or the Director-General of a Local Finance Branch Bureau in the investigation of a criminal case.

The Commission may directly guide and supervise the official of a Local Finance Bureau, etc., if it finds this to be necessary in connection with the investigation of a criminal case.

The official of a Local Finance Bureau, etc. may execute duties outside the jurisdictional district of the Local Finance Bureau or Local Finance Branch Bureau to which the official belongs, if it is necessary for the official to do so in order to investigate a criminal case.

If the Commission is convinced that a criminal offense has taken place based on the investigation of a criminal case, it must file an accusation, and if there are any retained objects, seized objects, or recording media submitted or electronic or magnetic records provided pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records, it must hand them over together with the retention inventory, the seizure inventory, or the inventory of the recording media submitted or electronic or magnetic records provided pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records.

If a retained object or seized object referred to in the preceding paragraph is related to the storage under the provisions of Article 221, the Commission must use the storage certificate referred to in that Article to hand it over, as well as notify the keeper referred to in that Article to that effect.

If a retained object, seized object, or recording medium submitted pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in Article 211, paragraph (1), item (i), (a)) is handed over pursuant to the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs, the object is deemed to have been seized pursuant to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Act No. 131 of 1948).

If electronic or magnetic records provided pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in Article 211, paragraph (1), item (i), (b)) are handed over pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1), those electronic or magnetic records are deemed to have been provided pursuant to an order to provide electronic or magnetic records prescribed in Article 102-2, paragraph (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (limited to one ordering provision by the method set forth in item (i), (b) of that paragraph) that a public prosecutor issues pursuant to the provisions of that Code.