Japan Seeks International Cooperation to Fight Spam

While the unsolicited e-mail trouble keeps on surging, extending beyond the national boundaries to reach the entire world, Japan has started to participate in collaborative attempts by several nations to deal with the problem.

Researches disclose that the trouble appears to be related to China and one-click subscription sex Websites. Close screening of IP addresses, which indicate the location of consumers, led the Japan Industrial Association to discover a spectacular growth in the volume of messages that solicited dating services and other sex-linked Websites coming from China.

As per the Association, the volume of nationally produced e-mails of such kind had declined from 14,726 in September 2006 to 6,058 this July (2007). In the meantime, those coming from China climbed up from 10,429 to 28,783.

Majority of these spam e-mails spring up from particular areas in China, with hosts in Heilungkiang, Liaoning and Guangdong provinces representing around 70% of these e-mails.

In its initiative to fight this trouble, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications decided to clamp down these spammers with every lawful means they can find.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications signed a joint agreement with the Federal Economics and Technology Ministry of Germany in July 2007, and both the ministries decided to exchange data on spam, and initiate joint programs to increase cognizance of the problem amongst concerned parties.

Often, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry exchanged views on the spam problem at multilateral conferences, like the ones convened by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference and the International Telecommunication Union. However, to tackle the trouble, the ministry proposes to tap both bilateral and multilateral measures.

The anti-spam joint declaration with Germany is the fourth to be signed by the government of Japan, subsequent to those with Britain, France and Canada. Other nations including France, with whom Japan has joint alliance on the issue, left it behind by initiating an "opt-in" system, wherein users are not allowed to send e-mails containing ads without the prior approval of the recipients to whom they mean to send.

But views differ over the penalty that should be levied on spammers. Japan and the United States can sentence these spammers to prison but in other nations, they can only be levied penalty.

Related article: Japan – Reinforce Spam Laws

» SPAMfighter News - 11/2/2007