Rakuten Mobile Employee Arrested, Accused Of Stealing SoftBank Secrets

An ex-employee of SoftBank, a major Japanese wireless carrier, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday (Jan. 12) on suspicion of stealing trade secrets before taking a job with Rakuten Mobile, a smaller rival.

The arrest comes at a time when the Japanese government is pressuring mobile companies to cut subscription fees.

Nikkei Asia reported that the employee is Kuniaki Aiba, 45, who started working for Rakuten last January and used to work for SoftBank’s mobile unit. SoftBank said he emailed the confidential information to a personal account.

In March of last year, Japan’s three major mobile carriers  – SoftBank, NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp. – launched 5G services, which enable the transmission of large-capacity data at a faster speed than 4G. In contrast, Rakuten Mobile launched its higher-speed network in September and is still catching up to its bigger rivals, Nikkei Asia reported.

SoftBank accuses Aiba of sharing confidential information about its 4G and 5G base station technology to help Rakuten launch its own 5G operation.

The Financial Times reported that Yoshihisa Yamada, president of Rakuten’s mobile unit, confirmed the employee had been arrested and that the company would fully cooperate with the police probe. Rakuten Mobile said it had conducted its own investigation, and that it did not find that the employee or the company had used any 5G trade secrets.

According to the FT, competition has heated up due to Rakuten’s “disruptive pricing.” In its allegations, SoftBank said the allegedly stolen trade secrets would enable Rakuten to build out its mobile network faster.

“Our trade secrets are stored on Rakuten Mobile’s corporate PC used by our former employee, and we believe there is a high possibility that Rakuten Mobile is using our trade secrets in some form,” SoftBank said. The FT reported that the company planned to file a lawsuit against Rakuten Mobile over the matter.

The rollout of 5G may have gotten a boost in the U.S. due to the pandemic and rising demand for broadband.