Unfair Competition Prevention Act

• A trade secret (営業秘密) is technical or business information useful for business, such as a production or sales method, that is kept secret and not publicly known. It is unfair competition to acquire one by theft, fraud, duress or other wrongful means, or to use or disclose one so acquired; to use or disclose a trade secret the holder showed you in order to gain wrongfully or to harm the holder; or to acquire, use or disclose one knowing, or not knowing through gross negligence, that it passed through such a wrongful act. Selling, exporting or otherwise passing on goods made by wrongly using a technical secret is unfair competition too, except by someone who received them without knowing this and without gross negligence.(Art. 2(6), Art. 2(1)(iv), Art. 2(1)(v), Art. 2(1)(vi), Art. 2(1)(vii), Art. 2(1)(viii), Art. 2(1)(ix), Art. 2(1)(x)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Shared data with limited access (限定提供データ) — technical or business information, other than a trade secret, built up in quantity and managed electronically to be provided to specific persons as a business — is protected in a similar way: taking it by wrongful means and using or disclosing data so taken; using, in breach of a duty to manage it, or disclosing data the holder provided, in order to gain wrongfully or harm the holder; and acquiring it knowing of such an act and then using or disclosing it, or disclosing it after learning of one, are unfair competition. So is providing devices, programs or services that defeat technological restriction measures (技術的制限手段) used in business to control viewing, listening, running programs, processing information or recording, though a device or program that also does other things counts only where it is provided for that use. So is acquiring or holding the right to use, or using, a domain name identical or similar to another's name, trademark or other indication in order to gain wrongfully or to harm that person.(Art. 2(7), Art. 2(1)(xi), Art. 2(1)(xii), Art. 2(1)(xiii), Art. 2(1)(xiv), Art. 2(1)(xv), Art. 2(1)(xvi), Art. 2(8), Art. 2(1)(xvii), Art. 2(1)(xviii), Art. 2(1)(xix)) (the provisions it rests on)
• It is unfair competition to put on goods or services, their advertising or documents or correspondence used in trade an indication likely to mislead about the goods' place of origin, quality, content, manufacturing method, use or quantity, or the services' quality, content, use or quantity, or to sell, deliver, display for sale, export, import or offer online such goods, or provide such services. It is also unfair competition to state or spread false facts that harm the business reputation of a competitor. And it is unfair competition for an agent or representative of someone holding trademark rights in a Paris Convention, World Trade Organization or Trademark Law Treaty country — or a person who was one within the year before — to use an identical or similar trademark on the same or similar goods or services, or deal in goods bearing it, without the holder's consent and without a legitimate reason.(Art. 2(1)(xx), Art. 2(1)(xxi), Art. 2(1)(xxii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• No person (何人も) may, without permission from the authority entitled to give it, use as a trademark a foreign state's flag, coat of arms or other emblem, or a foreign national or local government's official seal or mark (on goods or services like those it is used for), or something similar, where a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Order (経済産業省令) lists it, or sell, export, import or otherwise deal in goods, or provide services, bearing it as a trademark; nor use a listed foreign coat of arms in a way that misleads about where goods come from; nor, without that organization's permission, use an international organization's mark that order lists, or deal in goods bearing it, in a way that suggests a link with it. No person may give, offer or promise money or another benefit to a foreign public official (外国公務員等) to obtain a wrongful business advantage in international commercial transactions, by getting the official to act or not to act in their duties, or to use their position to influence another official. Foreign public officials include people in a foreign national or local government's service, staff of bodies a foreign law sets up for public-interest work, staff of businesses a foreign government controls through a majority of shares or officers and grants special rights, others a Cabinet Order (政令) names, officials of public international organizations, and people doing work delegated to them by a foreign national or local government or a public international organization.(Art. 16(1), Art. 16(2), Art. 16(3), Art. 17(1), Art. 18(1), Art. 18(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The right to demand that someone stop using a trade secret, or shared data with limited access, ends if the holder does not exercise it within three years of learning of the continuing use and of who is doing it, or once twenty years have passed since the use began. After that, no damages are owed for loss caused by the later use.(Art. 15(1), Art. 15(2), Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 21 May 2026

  The text on this site

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. to Respond to Advances in Information and Communications Technology, etc.

  情報通信技術の進展等に対応するための刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 39 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Civil Procedure, etc.

  民事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 48 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 22 July 2025

  Act on the Implementation of Agreements Between Japan and Other Contracting States Concerning the Facilitation of Reciprocal Access and Cooperation Between the Self-Defense Forces of Japan and the Armed Forces of Other Contracting States

  日本国の自衛隊と我が国以外の締約国の軍隊との間における相互のアクセス及び協力の円滑化に関する日本国と我が国以外の締約国との間の協定の実施に関する法律

  Act No. 26 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 12 June 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. to Respond to Advances in Information and Communications Technology, etc.

  情報通信技術の進展等に対応するための刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 39 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

• 23 May 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. to Respond to Advances in Information and Communications Technology, etc.

  情報通信技術の進展等に対応するための刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 39 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, etc.

  不正競争防止法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 51 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 15 February 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc.

  刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 28 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 3 July 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, etc.

  不正競争防止法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 51 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 6 June 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc.

  刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 28 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 17 amendments already in force

• Using in the usual way the common name of goods or a business, or an indication customarily used for such goods or business, is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) for confusing, famous, misleading and agent-trademark cases. A place-of-origin name for a product made from grapes that has become a common name does not count as a common name.(Art. 19(1), Art. 19(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Using one's own name without an unfair purpose is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) for confusing, famous and agent-trademark cases; so, for confusing and famous indications, is using one's registered trademark without an unfair purpose where similar registered trademarks have come to belong to different owners. A person harmed may still demand that the user add an indication that prevents confusion.(Art. 19(1)(ii), Art. 19(1)(iii), Art. 19(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Someone who was already using an indication before another's identical or similar indication became well known, or famous, and a successor to that business, are outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) when they use it without an unfair purpose. Where the other's indication became well known, the person harmed may demand that they add an indication that prevents confusion.(Art. 19(1)(iv), Art. 19(1)(v), Art. 19(2)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Selling or otherwise passing on goods that imitate the form of other goods is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) once three years have passed since the original goods were first sold in Japan, and when done by a person who received the imitations without knowing, and without gross negligence in not knowing, that they were imitations.(Art. 19(1)(vi)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person who obtained a trade secret in a transaction without knowing, and without gross negligence in not knowing, of a wrongful acquisition or disclosure behind it is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) when using or disclosing it within the rights the transaction gave. So is selling or otherwise passing on goods made by using a trade secret after the right to stop that use has ended under Article 15.(Art. 19(1)(vii), Art. 19(1)(viii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person who obtained shared data with limited access in a transaction without knowing of a wrongful act behind it is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22) when disclosing it within the rights the transaction gave; so is anyone acquiring, using or disclosing such data that is identical to information the public can use free of charge.(Art. 19(1)(ix)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Providing devices, programs or services that defeat technological restriction measures, where they are for testing or researching those measures, is outside the Act's civil remedies and penalties (Articles 3 to 15, 21 and 22).(Art. 19(1)(x)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Stopping use, damages and restoring reputation (Articles 3 to 5, 14 and 15(1)) do not reach trade-secret acts traced to a wrongful taking or disclosure made before 15 June 1991, other than disclosing the secret, or acquiring it knowing (or through gross negligence not knowing) of the wrongful act and using what was so acquired; nor continuing, after that day, a use of a secret one was shown that began before it. Like rules cover shared data with limited access taken before the 2018 amending Act took effect, and information that became such data under the 2023 amending Act if taken before that Act took effect.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 4(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• A person whose business interests are harmed, or likely to be harmed, by unfair competition can demand that the person doing it stop or prevent it, together with the destruction of the goods involved, the removal of the equipment used and other steps needed to stop it.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Whoever harms another's business interests by unfair competition, intentionally or negligently, must pay for the loss. The profit the infringer made is presumed to be the loss, and for most kinds of unfair competition — all but misleading indications, false statements about a competitor, circumvention devices and goods made with a misused technical secret — the harmed person may instead claim what a licence for the use would have cost. Where someone intentionally or negligently harmed another's business reputation by unfair competition, the court may on request order steps to restore it, in place of or alongside damages.(Art. 4(1), Art. 5(2), Art. 5(3), Art. 14(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where someone took a technical secret about a production method, or other information a Cabinet Order (政令) names, by unfair competition and then makes goods or does another act a Cabinet Order lists as plainly using it, they are presumed to have used the secret. The same presumption applies to someone who, after learning (or through gross negligence not learning) that a wrongful taking or disclosure lay behind it, kept records or objects holding the secret, and to someone the holder showed it who, to gain wrongfully or to harm the holder and against their duty to manage it, took it by embezzlement, copying, or not erasing a record they should have erased while pretending they had.(Art. 5-2(1), Art. 5-2(2), Art. 5-2(3), Art. 5-2(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a lawsuit over unfair competition the court may, on a party's request, order documents or electronic records needed to prove the infringement or calculate the loss, unless there is a legitimate reason to refuse. Where a party's trade secret appears in briefs or evidence and its use or disclosure is likely to hinder that party's business, the court may also, on that party's request, issue a protective order (秘密保持命令) forbidding the parties (including their representatives and employees), their counsel and their assistants (補佐人) from using the secret for anything but the lawsuit or disclosing it — but not against someone who already had the secret, before the request, other than from those briefs or evidence. Breaking a protective order is punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to five years, a fine of up to 5 million yen, or both, but only on a criminal complaint (告訴).(Art. 7(1), Art. 10(1), Art. 21(3)(vi), Art. 21(7)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Taking a trade secret by deceit, violence, threats, theft, breaking into premises, unauthorized computer access or other acts against the holder's control, in order to gain wrongfully or to harm the holder, using or disclosing a secret so taken, and, for those purposes, using or disclosing a secret received knowing it came through such a crime, are punishable by imprisonment of up to ten years, a fine of up to 20 million yen, or both. A person the holder showed a trade secret faces the same penalty if, for those purposes and against their duty to manage it, they take it by embezzling or copying it or by not erasing a record they should have erased while pretending they had, or use or disclose a secret so taken; an officer or employee faces it for using or disclosing the secret against that duty even without taking it, and a former officer or employee only where, while in post, they offered to disclose it or agreed to a request to use or disclose it, and then did so after leaving. Attempts are punishable for most of these offences.(Art. 21(1), Art. 21(2), Art. 21(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Selling, exporting or otherwise passing on goods made by criminally using a technical secret, to gain wrongfully or to harm the holder, is punishable by imprisonment of up to ten years, a fine of up to 20 million yen, or both — except by someone who received the goods without knowing how they were made.(Art. 21(1)(v), Art. 21(2)(v)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The maximum fine rises to 30 million yen, with imprisonment of up to ten years or both, where a trade secret is taken in order to use it outside Japan, disclosed knowing the recipient means to use it outside Japan, or used outside Japan when it belongs to a holder doing business in Japan. The same penalty applies to bribing a foreign public official.(Art. 21(4), Art. 21(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 5 million yen, or both, applies to: causing confusion with a well-known indication, or using a misleading indication, with an unfair purpose (不正の目的); using another's famous indication to exploit or damage its reputation; selling or otherwise dealing in goods that imitate the form of another's goods for wrongful gain; providing means to defeat technological restriction measures for wrongful gain or to harm the business using them; making a false indication that misleads about the origin, quality or other features of goods or services; and breaking the bans on using foreign flags, official marks or international organizations' marks.(Art. 21(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a representative, agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or individual commits certain of these offences in its business, the corporation is also fined up to 1 billion yen for the offences of Article 21(4) (among them taking a trade secret for use abroad and foreign bribery), 500 million yen for those of Article 21(1) and 300 million yen for those of Article 21(3), and an individual employer the fine of the article broken.(Art. 22(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Property gained from trade-secret offences, or as a reward for them, may be confiscated (没収), and its value collected from the offender where it cannot be confiscated or confiscating it is not appropriate. To secure this, a court may, on the prosecutor's request or on its own, forbid disposal of property that could be confiscated, or forbid the accused to dispose of their property; a judge may do so even before charges are brought.(Art. 21(13), Art. 21(15), Art. 35(1), Art. 35(3), Art. 36(1), Art. 36(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a criminal trial for a trade-secret offence, the court may decide, at the request of the victim, their legal representative or a lawyer either has instructed, after hearing the defence and where it thinks it appropriate, that matters identifying the trade secret are not to be revealed in open court; the prosecutor or the defence may ask the same where those matters are essential to the case, revealing them is likely to seriously hinder someone's business, and the court thinks it appropriate.(Art. 23(1), Art. 23(3)) (the provisions it rests on)