The government may begin procedures this month to hand over a Japanese man wanted in the United States on charges of industrial espionage, according to government sources.
Takashi Okamoto, 43, a former researcher at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) in Japan, was charged in the U.S. in May 2001 with stealing genetic material on Alzheimer's disease developed by the Learner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
The ministry has concluded his actions would be equivalent to theft and destruction of property if committed in Japan, the sources said.
The conclusion led the ministry to support Okamoto's handover to U.S. authorities under a bilateral extradition treaty, under which an offense must violate laws in both countries for Japan to hand over a suspect to the U.S.
It is the first case in which the U.S. Economic Espionage Act was invoked, and it has led to an amendment of Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Law to criminalize the leakage of business secrets.
In March 2002, the U.S. asked Japan to extradite Okamoto. The Justice Ministry has been studying whether he could be legally handed over on the basis of U.S. investigation findings.
Okamoto initially denied taking the genetic material but later owned up to it. He has said he is not guilty because the material is valueless.
Okamoto allegedly took DNA, cell line reagents and other research materials on Alzheimer's disease from the foundation without permission when he was working as a researcher at the foundation in July 1999.
He had left the materials with Hiroaki Serizawa, a former assistant professor at the University of Kansas, before taking them to Japan for the benefit of Riken, a government-backed lab. Serizawa plea bargained in return for testimony and was fined.