Chinese National at Japan Research Institute Arrested Over Suspected Trade Secrets Leak

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:33 JST, June 15, 2023

A researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has been arrested Thursday on suspicion of having leaked trade secrets to a Chinese company.

The 59-year-old male Chinese national is a senior researcher at AIST in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. He is suspected of having violated the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, according to sources close to the Public Security Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department.

In April 2018, the man is believed to have emailed information about a fluorine compound he was researching at AIST to the private Chinese company.

The information constituted advanced technology related to the synthesis of fluorine compounds that could lead to the development of gases that might offer solutions to issues such as global warming, the sources said.

The man has been working as a researcher at AIST since April 2002. There was a time when he concurrently taught at the Beijing Institute of Technology, one of the seven Chinese universities affiliated with China’s military, the sources said.

The MPD’s Public Safety Bureau on Thursday searched locations including the man’s home in Tsukuba.

The bureau is investigating the relationship between the man and the Chinese company and how such information could be leaked.

The bureau is investigating the relationship between the man and the Chinese company and how such information could be leaked.