(Provisional Translation)

September 3, 2004
Financial Services Agency

Signing of Information Sharing Arrangement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission

   Today, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) concerning Cooperation, Consultation and the Exchange of Information with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in order to establish a framework for the exchange of information on securities markets. The signing of the SOI is based on the Article 189 of the Securities and Exchange Law about the cooperation with the foreign securities regulators for enforcing the foreign securities laws. The SOI was signed after the exchange of diplomatic Notes Verbale (Notes) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Australian Embassy in Japan on August 26, 2004.

   As securities transactions have become increasingly global, there is a growing need to cooperate in combating transnational fraud, and, in this connection, to share information about illegal cross-border securities activities. Thus, we have established the framework for the exchange of information with the Australian securities regulator which oversees one of the leading securities markets in the Asia Pacific region closely related to ours.

   Under the framework set by the Notes and the SOI, the Japanese and Australian securities regulators will exchange information regarding securities markets such as the information on securities transactions upon request by each authority.

   The FSA entered into the similar information sharing frameworks with the securities regulators of China in March 1997 and of the United States in May 2002. While Japan entered into the similar information sharing framework with Singapore in December 2001, the framework was integrated into the chapter on ''Financial Services Co-Operation'' of the ''Agreement between Japan and the Republic of Singapore for a New-Age Economic Partnership'' effective in November 2002 and its implementing agreement.

(Reference)

   In the ''Australia-Japan Trade and Economic Framework'' signed by the Prime Minister of each country at the Japan-Australia Summit Meeting on July 16, 2003, the following is listed as one of the areas of cooperation mutually determined by both countries in the Annex I of the aforementioned ''Australia-Japan Trade and Economic Framework'';

  1. Regulatory Cooperation on Securities Markets
       Facilitating dialogue on information exchange through a bilateral arrangement between the relevant agencies.

For further information, please contact:

International Affairs Division
Shintaro TANAKA
Tel: 03-3506-6000 (ext. 3693)

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