In an effort to address Vietnam’s historical perception as a high-risk compliance jurisdiction, the Vietnamese government has recently implemented a series of regulatory and practical measures to significantly reduce corrupt practices in the country.
These recent efforts to combat corruption have resulted in a number of measures, including legal reforms, public awareness campaigns, international cooperation efforts, as well as increased enforcement of corruption and bribery laws (including a number of high profile arrests and prosecutions for bribery offences). These trends in Vietnam show no sign of slowing down, and heightened enforcement of corruption-related crimes in Vietnam can be expected to continue and even increase in the months and years to come.

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications have recently approached certain foreign companies (in particular tech companies) and issued notices requiring that the company make a registration in Japan under the Companies Act.
In this article, we comment on this issue and provide our perspectives on the Japanese Companies Act, tax and other related laws and regulations such as the Telecommunications Business Act.

In June 2022, amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects employees who have reported violations of certain laws specified in the WPA, are expected to come into force. Amongst other items, the Amended WPA includes a mandatory obligation for companies of a certain size to establish a whistleblowing system with the aim of ensuring the protection of whistleblowers.