Information on adhesive technology used in Asahi Kasei’s semiconductor manufacturing is believed to have been leaked to a Chinese company, and a former male employee of the company was arrested on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (disclosure of trade secrets). The leak is suspected to have involved removing internal data and sending it by email.
A man believed to be a former Asahi Kasei employee, aged 66, was arrested on suspicion of removing a hard drive containing manufacturing data for a latent curing agent classified as a trade secret from the company in November 2018, then emailing the data to an associate of another company on 13 September 2024 after changing jobs.
The prefectural police have not disclosed whether the man has admitted or denied the allegations. The recipient is said to be a Chinese chemical manufacturer, and Asahi Kasei has indicated that it plans to file suit seeking to halt use of and destroy the leaked information.
The man voluntarily left Asahi Kasei at the end of November 2018 and subsequently found employment with chemical manufacturers and other companies in Nagoya. Police are investigating how the information was leaked and whether he received anything in return.