Adopted by the plenary of the 58th session of the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003 and entered into force on December 14, 2005, the Convention is the first international legal instrument against corruption.

Methodological and organizational support for the implementation of the Convention is provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC). A general conference of the Convention's member countries is held, as a rule, every two years. Operational issues of its implementation are also discussed at regular meetings of several working groups.

The Convention covers five main areas: prevention, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange.

More information on the Convention's implementation mechanisms can be found on our website or on the UNODC website.

Japan, a new member of the Convention, is no stranger to the phenomenon of corruption. In the mid-20th century, in the post-war period, the country's system of power was built on the principles of the "iron triangle", the "corners" of which were officials, politicians and businessmen. The combined efforts of political and business elites, on the one hand, contributed to the country's economic growth, but on the other hand, created a culture of behind-the-scenes, non-transparent government decisions.

One of the most high-profile corruption cases in post-war Japan was theLockheed bribery scandal, which involved bribes from the American aircraft manufacturerLockheed Corporation to high-ranking officials and politicians in several countries, including Japan. Kakuei Tanaka, prime minister of Japan in 1972-1974 and one of the famous "shadow shonguns," was arrested on corruption charges.

The Lockheed scandal is believed to be the catalyst for the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ( FCPA), and after the conclusion of hearings in the case, the U.S. government introduced a bill that became the most famous extraterritorial anti-corruption and anti-bribery statute.

Bribes to Japanese politicians and officials were not only in the form of money. The practice of organizing various kinds of entertainment, often of a sexual nature, was widespread. For example, payment for trips to "no-pan shabu-shabu" restaurants, where guests were served food by waitresses in short skirts and without underwear, became one of the synonyms of corruption in the highest echelons of power in Japan. The most famous case of showing such "gratitude" to officials is related to the Ministry of Finance.

As part of the fight against corruption, the country's authorities introduced various mechanisms to increase transparency and create a culture of intolerance to corrupt practices, including a system of mandatory disclosure of assets by politicians, a set of ethical principles for the public sector, and codes of corporate behavior in the business sector.

Today, Japan is known as a country with a fairly low level of corruption. In theCorruption perception index 2016 (CPI), Japan ranked 20th, making it the third Asian country (after Singapore and Hong Kong).