Learn in the textbookLaws on Unauthorized Access and Cyber Crime
DefinitionThe Crime Concerning Unauthorized Commands Electromagnetic Records (不正指令電磁的記録に関する罪) is an offense under the Penal Code (刑法) that punishes handling, without a legitimate reason, programs such as computer viruses (コンピュータウイルス) that make a computer act against its user's intentions.
ExplanationUnauthorized commands electromagnetic records (不正指令電磁的記録) is a legal term for data carrying instructions that make a computer do something its user does not want. The punishable acts go beyond creating and providing to include deployment (供用), which means putting the program where it can run on someone else's computer, and even obtaining and storing it. The offense was created by a 2011 amendment to the Penal Code, and every act presupposes the absence of a legitimate reason.
AnalogyIt is like a rule on poison that covers not only making it but also handing it over, mixing it into food and secretly keeping it.
Memory hook"Electromagnetic record" is the legal word for data. Read the name as "data carrying unauthorized commands" and the shape of a virus comes into view.