The" Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions "was adopted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD)in1997.In Japan,in order to domestically implement it,the Unfair Competition Prevention Law(Law No.47of1993)was amended to additionally criminalize the act of providing unlawful profit to a foreign public officer etc.and the Convention came into force in1999.

  In2001,the" Convention on Cybercrime "was adopted by the Council of Europe.Japan signed it in2001,and the conclusion was approved by the Diet in April2004(The Convention has not been concluded as its related domestic laws were not enacted by the163rd Diet of2005).The Convention is the world's first comprehensive convention on measures against high-tech crimes,and provides as follows:(1)the Member States shall be required to criminalize certain acts including illegal access to computer systems,illegal interception of computer data,production of computer viruses and distribution of child pornography through computer systems;(2)in addition to these specific acts mentioned above,the Convention requests the Member States to develop procedures for search and seizure of computer data as evidence in electronic form and to enable investigative measures such as orders for preservation of data,which shall be broadly applied to any offenses committed by means of a computer system;(3)the Convention has provisions on international cooperation in criminal investigation and extradition.

  With respect to the" Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons "adopted by the Council of Europe in1983with the aim of establishing a system for transferring sentenced foreign nationals to their home countries to serve their sentences there,the Law on International Transfer of Sentenced Persons(Law No.66of2002)was enacted in2002in Japan.Furthermore,having obtained the approval of the Diet,Japan deposited an instrument of accession to conclude the Convention in February2003.The Convention,along with the said law,came into force in Japan in June2003.Under this law,seven foreign inmates(including one female)were transferred for the first time in2004.The breakdown was three British sentenced persons(including one female),two Spanish,one American,and one Swedish(Source:The Correction Bureau,Ministry of Justice).
  Japan launched preliminary talks with China to start discussion toward the conclusion of the treaty concerning the transfer of sentenced persons between Japan and China,in order to realize the transfer of Chinese prisoners who are increasing in number.