Japan will sign a treaty aimed at reducing Internet-related crimes at an international conference on cyber crime Friday in Budapest, the government said Tuesday.
Following the signing of the Convention on Cyber Crime, the government will begin taking steps to revise laws so it can work with other countries to deal more effectively with cross-border violations involving use of the Internet, government officials said.
The convention is the product of four years of work by European Council experts and will come into force after its ratification by five nations. Japan was involved in drafting the pact.
The treaty deals with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security.
Signatory countries could launch joint investigations into cross-border Internet crimes and jointly establish cases against suspects or groups acting in more than one country.
The convention specifically asks member countries to make it a crime to manufacture or possess computer viruses and to manufacture or distribute child pornography on the Web.
It will be supplemented by additional protocols making any publication of "racist and xenophobic propaganda" via computer networks a criminal offense.