a measure to obligate businesses to not disclose information regarding prohibited enticement actions to the public, and regulations to promote private sector activities to prevent the use of online dating sites by children were included. As of February 28, 2009, 714 cases and 2,527 websites were registered.

## 2 ) Strengthening of Systems

In order to prevent cybercrimes from crossing prefectural borders, it is essential that relevant Prefectural Policies coordinate with each other and handle their investigations in such a way that they are not redundant. The NPA thus established the Cybercrime Division in 2004. The function of this division is not only to provide guidance and coordination to Prefectural Police for ongoing cybercrime related investigations, but also to provide training in order to increase the skills of investigators; promote ties with the industrial world, foreign entities, and other organizations; and increase public awareness.

In order to effectively promote the countermeasures against cybercrimes, Prefectural Police forces and prefectural information communications divisions established the Cyber Crime Project in order to efficiently advance cybercrime countermeasures in cooperation with the relevant divisions. This project is comprised of investigators and others who possess knowledge and qualifications in related to cybercrime countermeasures. In addition, the NPA is working to cultivate investigators who possess the specialized skills and knowledge required for cybercrime investigations, and employing those who have experience working as system engineers in the private sector as cybercrime investigators.

## 3 ) International Cooperation

Cybercrimes are crimes that can easily be conducted across borders. Therefore, discussions are being held at various international conferences regarding mutual cooperation among investigative bodies and the creation of structures within each country. The NPA strives to strengthen multilateral collaboration by actively participating in information exchanges regarding the investigative methodologies of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-Interpol) $ ^{1} $ and the High-tech Crime Subgroup working under the G8 Roma/Lyon Group (see page 185).

In addition, as of May 1, 2009, 24-hour contact points, accessible 24 hours of the day, for international cybercrimes were established in 55 countries and regions. In the case of Japan, this system, which facilitates cooperation among international investigative entities, was established within the NPA.

Apart from this, the Convention on Cybercrime was adopted by the Council of Europe (CE) in November 2001. In Japan, Diet approval was received for the conclusion of this treaty in April 2004. Currently, draft legislation is under deliberation by the Diet to partially amend laws such as the Penal Code in order to deal with the internationalization and organization of crime as well as the advancement of information processing, in preparation for the adoption of the Convention. Revisions to the Unauthorized Computer Access Act, the Penal Code, and the Code of Criminal Procedure are included among these.

## Note 1: International Criminal Police Organization-Interpol

## (3) Countermeasures for illegal information and harmful information on the internet

## 1 ) Efforts to delete illegal information and harmful information

In June 2006, the NPA launched the operation of the Internet Hotline Center (http://www.internethotline.jp/) which receives reports regarding illegal or harmful information $ ^{1} $ from internet users from the general public and notifies the police and sends deletion requests to internet service providers and other organizations. The Center received 135,126 reports in 2008. Of these reports, for information stored on servers in Japan, 8,474 deletion requests were sent to internet service providers and others and in 7,164 cases (82.6%), the information was deleted. As for information stored on servers abroad, requests to take action for deletion were sent for 533 cases of illegal information which the Center targets to the relevant organizations in the countries where the servers are established.