The actual prison time handed down Thursday to flamboyant fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami and to Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie in March appear to signal that white collar criminals now face much harsher punishments, some legal analysts say.

Courts have routinely handed down suspended sentences for corporate crimes. However, Murakami was sentenced to two years for insider trading and Horie got 2 1/2 years for accounting fraud.

Kenichi Osugi, a professor of securities exchange law at Chuo University Law School, who agreed with the decision to send Murakami to prison, predicted that from now on white-collar criminals will face stricter punishments.