A government panel approved a draft bill Friday that would allow the government to punish Japanese nationals working abroad who were involved in bribing foreign public servants, regardless of whether their parent companies in Japan were involved, officials said.
A panel on economic and trade cooperation, which is a subgroup of the Industrial Structure Council within the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, approved the draft.
The draft would result in an amendment to the law on preventing unfair competition that would allow Japanese investigative authorities to punish bribe-givers, the officials said.
Under the current law, Japanese authorities are not allowed to punish expatriates who bribe foreign public servants unless their parent companies are involved.
The envisioned amendment would also empower Japanese authorities to punish such offenders who work for overseas subsidiaries of Japanese companies, as well as for foreign companies abroad, the officials said.