Changes foreshadowed to Japanese Insider Dealing Laws

FSA plans to tighten the regulation on insider trading, a person who leaked information may be penalized

On 5 November, Nikkei Newspaper reported that the debate to strengthen the regulation of insider trading is progressing in the working group of the Financial System Council organized by the Japanese FSA.  While under the current regulation an act of trading securities after taking advantage of insider information is penalized, an act of leaking material information is not covered by the regulations.  It was reported that the FSA was alerted to increasing cases where insider information was leaked to external parties by large securities companies such as Nomura or Daiwa securities.  In July this year, The Financial System Council began considerong amending the FIEL in the direction of punishing a person who leaked insider information.