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To Administrative Organs

Under the whistleblower protection system, administrative organs will receive the following two types of reports.
This page introduces the basic approaches for appropriately handling the reports by administrative organs.

  • Item (i) Report
    Report from internal personnel and others as "enterprise" (Report under Article 3, paragraph (1) of the Act)
  • Item (ii) Report
    Report from external workers, etc. as the "administrative organ with the authority to impose a disposition, make a recommendation, etc. regarding a reportable fact" (Report under Article 3, item(ii) and Article 6, item (ii) of the Act)

Actions Required in Dealing with Item (i) Report

  • Administrative organs as "enterprises" are required to deal with the reports in the same manner as private enterprises. Please refer to the following link.

Actions Required in Dealing with Item (ii) Report

Matters to Be Dealt with by Administrative Organs

The following obligations are imposed on the "administrative organ with the authority to impose a disposition, make a recommendation, etc. regarding the reportable fact".

  • Measures to be taken by administrative organs (Article 13, paragraph (1) of the Act)
    In order to prevent damage to citizens caused by violation of laws and regulations and to prevent the expansion of such damage, it is necessary for the administrative organ receiving a whistleblowing disclosure to properly process it and exercise its corrective function.
    The administrative organ which receives an item (ii) report must conduct necessary investigations and if finding that a reportable fact exists, must take statutory measures or any other appropriate measures.
  • Measures necessary for appropriate implementation of measures to be taken by administrative organs (Obligation to establish a system for dealing with external reports as an administrative organ) (Article 13, paragraph (2) of the Act)
    The administrative organ (excluding the personnel provided for in Article 2, paragraph (4), item (i)) with the authority to impose a disposition, make a recommendation, etc. regarding a reportable fact must establish a necessary system or otherwise take necessary measures to respond to and appropriately deal with whistleblowing disclosures provided for in Article 3, item (ii) and Article 6, item (ii) in order to properly implement the measures provided for in Article 13, paragraph (1).

The following obligations are imposed on the "Administrative organ with no authority to impose a disposition, make a recommendation, etc. regarding the reportable fact".

Requirements for Protection of Item (ii) Report

Item (ii) reports which meet the requirements of 1. or 2. will be protected. (However, if the whistleblower is an officer, only in the case of 1.)

  1. In the case there are reasonable grounds to believe that a reportable fact has occurred or is about to occur (This is called "reasonable belief", which means that there is a reasonable basis such as evidence supportive of the reportable fact or highly credible statements by the persons concerned, rather than mere speculation or rumor).
    Note : If the whistleblower is an officer, it is also necessary for the officer to make efforts to take investigative and rectification measures, except for the case of an imminent danger to the life, body, or protection of property of an individual.
  2. Considering that a reportable fact has occurred or is about to occur and submit a document stating the following matters:
    • Name, address or residence of the whistleblower
    • Details of reportable fact
    • Reasons for considering that the reportable fact has occurred or is about to occur
    • Reasons for considering that statutory measures or any other appropriate measures should be taken with respect to the reportable fact