The Supreme Court has disclosed for the first time the conditions under which police can conduct sting operations, although scholars say these maneuvers should be outlawed because they actually cause a crime to occur.

Three conditions were revealed in a ruling dated Monday in the case of an Iranian who was found in illegal possession of cannabis in a sting operation at an Osaka hotel on March 2, 2000. Whether the sting was illegal was the focus of the trial.

Justice Tokuji Izumi, who presided over the case at the No. 1 Petty Bench, defined a sting as a method of uncovering a crime in action by investigators or collaborators in probes working at their request who conceal their identity and motives in order to induce the crime.