Nidec Files a Civil Action and a Complaint against Toyo Keizai Inc. and Former Employee, etc.

KYOTO, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nidec Corporation (TOKYO: 6594) (OTC US: NJDCY) (“Nidec” or the “Company”) announced today that it has instituted an civil action against Toyo Keizai Inc. and concerned individuals, requesting damage compensation, among others, and will submit to the competent police office a written complaint, on the violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act by the aforementioned parties, stating that the article about the Company reported by Toyo Keizai Inc. on February 10, 2023 was based on trade secret wrongfully acquired from the Company.

1. Details of the civil lawsuit

(1) Court:	The Tokyo District Court
(2) Date of filing the lawsuit:	June 28, 2023
(3) Defendants:	Toyo Keizai Inc. Toyo Keizai Online Editor-in-chief, Asuka Yoshikawa Toyo Keizai Editorial Department Reporter, Reo Takahashi Reporter, Akihiro Takenaka Former employee of the Company, Naoto Yanagihara
(4) Details of the demands:	Damage compensation due to violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and torts

2. Background leading to the civil lawsuit

In December 2022, Mr.Naoto Yanagihara, who was an employee of the Company at that time, provided Mr.Akihiro Takenaka, who was approaching Mr.Yanagihara to obtain internal information to write critical articles against Mr.Nagamori, chairman of the Company with trade secret which Mr.Yanagihara illegally obtained, such as internal approval documents and personnel information, etc. Mr.Takenaka shared the obtained information with the editor-in-chief of Toyo Keizai Online and his reporters and created an article. Although Toyo Keizai Inc. received a warning from the Company stating that the information Toyo Keizai Inc. was trying to report was the Company’s trade secret which was wrongfully acquired, Toyo Keizai Inc. disregarded the warning and disclosed a part of the trade secret in the article on Toyo Keizai Online on February 10, 2023.

These actions violate the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and are also illegal conducts under the Civil Code, and such actions are totally unacceptable to us. Nidec believes that it should resolutely fight against illegal and dishonesty acts, and has decided to institute a civil action and a criminal complaint against the aforementioned parties.