Japan proposes remote analysis of tokuryō members’ smartphones — The Japan Times

An expert panel under Japan’s National Police Agency has proposed granting police, as soon as possible, the authority to remotely analyze smartphones used by members of anonymous criminal groups known as tokuryō. This was reported by The Japan Times.

Access with court authorization

Police must first identify devices that, based on the investigation, may belong to the organizers of such groups, and then obtain court authorization to access them. The aim is to obtain information about possible criminal plans, including potential victims, in order to prevent crimes and the harm they cause.

Remote analysis is proposed only where there is a risk of serious harm and it is impossible to obtain the necessary information by other means. Only devices for which there are grounds to believe they are used by tokuryō—for communication between members or for calls related to fraud—are planned to be examined.

Privacy protection

Tokuryō groups use secure messengers with encryption and automatic message deletion for fraud and robberies. As the publication notes, traditional investigative methods, including wiretapping, do not make it possible to establish the circumstances of these groups’ activities and also complicate the identification of their high-ranking members and potential crime targets.

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The recommendations state that police will not retain obtained information that is unrelated to the case, and there will be no continuous monitoring of devices. Only employees designated by the head of the National Police Agency will have access to the information; investigators will receive only the necessary data.

Remote analysis will likely be carried out using special investigative software, but details are not disclosed so that the groups cannot develop countermeasures. All such cases will be reported to public safety commissions to assess whether the method was used appropriately, while people whose phones were analyzed will be informed of this afterward to the extent possible.

After working out the details, the National Police Agency plans to submit to an extraordinary session of parliament a bill amending the law on the execution of police duties.