Cooperative Agreement System in Japan and Its Application in Corporate Crime: On the Reform of Corporate Compliance in China

In 2016, the "Cooperative Agreement System", with the nature of judicial bargaining, is formally established in the Code of Criminal Procedure of Japan. The Cooperative Agreement System, with the original intention of identifying joint crimes, has gradually been combined with the investigation of corporate crimes and the compliance of corporate involved in cases, playing the functions of corporate defense and criminal reporting promotion. Under the Cooperative Agreement System, the corporates' cooperation on investigation and trial has a positive effect on the prosecution's fact ascertaining and evidence collecting. Therefore, the procedural diversion under the Cooperative Agreement System has gradually become one of the criminal incentives for corporate compliance in Japan. However, there have always been doubts on the Cooperative Agreement System, such as "whether it is appropriate to use a bargaining investigative method" and "whether it is necessary to introduce a new evidence collection method that does not rely excessively on interrogation transcripts". Thus, the application and boundaries of the Cooperative Agreement System in the field of corporate crimes is always controversial. The corporate compliance is the only way for Chinese companies to become global. While referring to the Non-Pro-secution Agreements or Deferred Prosecution Agreements in the United States and other pioneering countries to stimulate corporate compliance, Japan's Cooperative Agreement System is suitable for corporate crime, with respect to the legal persons, the corporate director's duty of care and the internal investigation of corporates, is also worthy of reference. On this basis, it can be combined with the Pleading Guilty and Accepting Punishment with Leniency System in China to realize the criminal incentive of corporate compliance in a diversified manner.