January 29, 2021 Correction Order to Godo Kaisha NEXT for Its Deeds in Violation of Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) issued a correction order to Godo Kaisha NEXT, a telephone forwarding service provider, for its deeds in violation of the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds (Act No. 22 of 2007, hereafter referred to as “the Act”). The order demands that the company take necessary measures for abiding by obligations to confirm customers’ identification and prepare and keep proper identification records pursuant to Article 18 of the Act.

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  The Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds imposes obligations on specified service operators to confirm customers’ identification in times of individual transactions and keep records on the identification. It designates telephone forwarding service providers as specified service operators.

1. Outline of operator

2. Background of case

The National Public Safety Commission pointed out Godo Kaisha NEXT (hereafter referred to as “NEXT”) was in breach of obligations as provided by the law and made a statement to the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications pursuant to the Act.
Accordingly, MIC collected a report from NEXT and confirmed that the operator’s violation of the law was recognized. Therefore, MIC has taken an administrative measure against NEXT.

3. Contents of violations

In response to the statement of the opinion of the National Public Safety Commission, MIC collected the report, and as a result, the following violations were found in NEXT.

1. 1.
   In breach of the obligations to confirm the identification of customers―NEXT was found to have violated the obligation to confirm the identification of customers based on Article 4, Paragraph 1 of the Act for contracts related to the provision of the telephone forwarding service concluded on or after April 1, 2013.
2. 2.

   In breach of the obligation to prepare and keep proper identification records on customers―NEXT was found to have violated the obligation to create confirmation records based on Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Act for contracts related to the provision of the telephone forwarding service concluded on or after April 1, 2013.

4. Contents of order

To correct the above violations, MIC ordered NEXT on January 29, 2021, to understand and abide by the relevant rules as pursuant to Article 18 and take necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of the violations.