Classified information of Japan's top companies has been reportedly leaked on China's Baidu Library document-sharing website.
According to the Japan times, confidential internal documents and materials from leading companies including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Canon.Inc and Sony Corp. have been leaked.
Users of Baidu Library receive points for uploading documents and can use them to download other papers and materials from the site. Anyone can browse the site's materials, whether they have points or not.
Shanghai-based lawyer Yusuke Wakebe, who is investigating the issue, said that the leaked information includes the technical data of a major manufacturer prior to a patent application and an advertising firm's proposal on a client project.
Wakebe said that once the internal data of a company are disclosed on the Internet, the business' information management ability is questioned and its credibility will be hurt, whatever the confidentiality level of the information.
Sony's Chinese subsidiary said that it has asked Baidu to delete documents from the site on a case-by-case basis and Hitachi's said that it has been regularly monitoring the site and requesting the removal of its materials.
Toyota and Canon's spokesperson did not comment.
The Japan External Trade Organization has started a full investigation and called on domestic companies doing business in China to impose strict controls on internal data, the report added.
