The competent minister may provide foreign authorities that enforce acts of foreign countries equivalent to this Act (referred to as "foreign enforcement authorities" in paragraphs (2) and (3)) with information that the minister thinks benefits the performance of the authorities' work (limited to work equivalent to work prescribed in this Act; the same applies in the next paragraph).
For the provision of information prescribed in the preceding paragraph, appropriate measures must be taken to prevent the information from being used for purposes other than the performance of the foreign enforcement authorities' duties and for investigation (limited to those after target facts constituting crimes have been identified) or judgment of foreign criminal cases (referred to as "investigation or judgment") without the consent prescribed in the next paragraph.
When a foreign enforcement authority makes a request, the competent minister may give consent to the use of the information provided pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) for investigation or judgment of foreign criminal cases related to the request, except for cases falling under any of the following items:
when a crime subject to the investigation or judgment of the criminal case related to the request is a political crime, or when the request is deemed to have been made for the purpose of conducting the investigation or judgment of a political crime;
当該要請に係る刑事事件の捜査等の対象とされている犯罪が政治犯罪であるとき、又は当該要請が政治犯罪について捜査等を行う目的で行われたものと認められるとき。
when an act related to the crime subject to the investigation or judgment of the criminal case related to the request is deemed to have been conducted in Japan, and the act is not considered as a crime under Japanese law; or
当該要請に係る刑事事件の捜査等の対象とされている犯罪に係る行為が日本国内において行われたとした場合において、その行為が日本国の法令によれば罪に当たるものでないとき。
when there is no guarantee by the requesting country to respond to the same type of request made by Japan.
日本国が行う同種の要請に応ずる旨の要請国の保証がないとき。
When the competent minister gives consent as prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the competent minister must receive confirmation from the Minister of Justice that the request does not fall under items (i) or (ii) of the paragraph and from the Minister of Foreign Affairs that the request does not fall under item (iii) of the paragraph.