Japan Adopts Bill to Punish Revenge against Whistleblowers

Tokyo, March 4 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government adopted at a cabinet meeting Tuesday a bill to revise the whistleblower protection law to impose criminal penalties for acts of revenge taken against whistleblowers in government offices and companies.

The law currently bans unfair treatment of whistleblowers but does not stipulate punishments.

The bill calls for imposing a fine of up to 30 million yen on companies that dismiss or discipline whistleblowers. People who discipline whistleblowers will be subject to imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

The government stopped short of imposing penalties against personnel relocations conducted after whistleblowing as it is difficult to prove causal relationships between whistleblowing reports and such relocations.

The bill will prohibit identifying whistleblowers without a proper reason and asking them to promise that they will not make whistleblowing reports.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]