Four men convicted of smuggling a large volume of a restricted ozone-depleting substance into Japan were given suspended prison terms by a district court Thursday.
The Kokura branch of the Fukuoka District Court sentenced Yuichiro Nakazono, 33; Kenji Araki, 41; and Masashi Miyachi, 28, to two-year prison terms, suspended for four years, and ordered each of them to pay a 1 million yen penalty.
Saburo Yamashita, a 60-year-old import agent from Okayama Prefecture, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for four years, and was ordered to pay a penalty of 800,000 yen.
The four were found guilty of attempting to import chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) 12 from China without authorization, thereby violating the Customs Law.
Judge Masaki Kawano said, "It was a selfishly motivated organized crime of malicious intent committed by those who are aware importation (of CFC) is effectively banned because it is environmentally destructive."
The judge noted that the accused had expressed remorse over their actions.
According to the ruling, the four attempted to import around 36,000 refill cans of CFC 12 from China in June by falsely declaring the cans contained CFC substitutes.
The four are also believed to have imported a large number of cans in a similar fashion on nine occasions between August 2000 and May, selling them for about three times their normal value.
As the agent is rare and its domestic production banned, it usually fetches high prices.
CFC, an industrial chemical used in refrigeration systems, air conditioners, solvents and other products, damages the ozone layer.
Both the production and import of CFCs have been banned in Japan since late 1995, but authorities say the products are smuggled in from developing countries where CFC production is still permitted.