A bill prohibiting unauthorized access to computer networks was approved Friday by the Upper House Committee on Local Administration and Police Affairs, paving the way for chamber passage of the measure before the end of the current Diet session.

The law, if enacted, will be the first legal measure to check unauthorized network access by clearly making such access illegal.

Fines of up to 500,000 yen or a maximum one-year prison term will be meted to those who enter protected computer systems through such means as acquiring others' identification and passwords.

Those who abet such access by providing the perpetrator with the personal IDs of others will also be fined up to 300,000 yen.

Current criminal laws concerning computer-related crimes regulate only the tampering of data from computers and the network systems of others, not unauthorized access itself, which is generally viewed as the starting point of any computer crime.

The bill also includes a provision to oblige Internet providers and other firms that manage computer access to assume greater responsibility in managing their clients' IDs.

The bill also has a provision urging such firms to cooperate with public security officials to combat unauthorized computer entry.

All other Group of Seven industrialized countries already have similar measures to prohibit unauthorized network access, and the National Police Agency and other public security entities have been working for the bill's passage to bring Japan on a par with those countries.