Phones and making requests for the freezing of deposit accounts as they are instrumental in the prevention of damage.

In addition, since the cooperation with relevant institutions and organizations is essential to effectively promote measures for the multiple debt problem, police officers participate in liaison councils on measures to deal with multiple debtors established by prefectural governments for exchanges of opinions and information, and police are also striving to prevent damage from black-market finance offenses by undertaking joint campaigns and other awareness activities.

## (4) Efforts to Deal with Frauds Using the Internet

## 1 ) Stronger crackdown

Frauds using the Internet tend to spread the damage over wide areas, and in many cases, such frauds are carried out systematically by groups of individuals who have respective roles of illegally obtaining ID and passwords, procuring deposit accounts for use in crimes and executing actual fraud practices, etc. Police are strengthening the crackdown on wide-area and systematic crimes for conducting effective and efficient investigations, promoting joint and cooperative investigations as necessary.

## 2 ) Promotion of measures to prevent damage by business operators

Police are striving to prevent damage by encouraging Internet auction operators to secure safe transactions through stronger identify confirmation of those putting merchandise on the block and simultaneous settlements of delivery of goods and payments for them, while urging banks offering Internet banking services to reinforce measures for stronger personal authentication through, for example, the introduction of one-time passwords $ ^{1} $ .

Note 1: Passwords for authentication in Internet banking whose strings of characters change for each authentication. The introduction of one-time passwords should help prevent the abuse of passwords as one-time passwords, even when they are stolen, become invalid at the time of next authentication.

## 3 ) Promotion of awareness activities

Police are promoting awareness activities for the prevention of damage by explaining criminal tactics and damage-prevention measures via the website, pamphlets and training courses on cyber security.

### 2. Measures to Cope with Crimes that Threaten Citizens’ Lives and Bodies

## (1) Measures against Offenses That Threaten Safety and Security of Food and Manufactured Products

## 1 ) Stronger crackdown

Police are driving the crackdown on offenses that threaten the safety and security concerning food and manufactured products. For offenses affecting the safety of food, police are focusing on vicious cases for prompt and proactive crackdown. Regarding accidents caused by the use of manufactured products, police shed light on the causes of accidents and determine whether people involved are criminally responsible.

In cases where the damage is spread over wide areas, police are striving to shed light on the truth behind such cases by conducting joint and cooperative investigations by police forces of prefectures involved and holding meetings to discuss investigation policies. As necessary, police exchange information with security services of other countries.

## 2 ) Stronger cooperation with relevant institutions

When offenses that threaten the safety and security of food and manufactured products were committed, it becomes necessary to seek cooperation with relevant institutions to prevent the damage from widening. Police are striving to strengthen cooperation with relevant institutions, including an exchange of