Japan Launches Cross-Ministry Panel to Screen Foreign Investment

Japan on Monday formed a cross-ministry committee, similar to that in the United States, to strengthen the preliminary screening of foreign investment in the country as a way to prevent the leakage of critical technology and ensure economic security. The launch of the body, called the Japan Foreign Investment Committee (JFIC), follows a revision to the foreign exchange and foreign trade law to address an increase in applications as more sectors are deemed important to national security. “We will strengthen information exchange and improve screening capabilities across the government,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said at the first meeting of the panel at her office in Tokyo. The committee was one of Takaichi’s pledges during the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election, which she won in October 2025, and was included in the coalition agreement between her party and the Japan Innovation Party in the same month. The committee is co-chaired by the Ministry of Finance and the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. It also involves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Defence. Previously, the Ministry of Finance and the ministries or agencies responsible for specific industrial sectors such as nuclear power, defence, aviation, and electricity were required to screen foreign investors acquiring a certain amount of shares in companies in designated areas. The revised law expands the scope of screening to cases where a foreign company acquires another foreign company that holds shares in a Japanese firm. The panel was inspired by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency body authorised to review investments in the country by foreign companies to determine if they pose national security risks and to advise the president to block those deemed problematic.