Photo/Illutration The Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tokyo police sent documents to prosecutors on April 20 accusing a Chinese national of involvement in a series of cyberattacks against hundreds of institutions, including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes the man in his 30s illegally created and used private electronic records linked to the computer attacks.

The cyberattacks in question had been carried out against some 200 domestic companies and research organizations related to defense and aviation. They were first detected in 2016.

According to investigative sources, the man is a member of the Chinese Communist Party who was living in Japan at that time and had rented a server that was used in the cyberattacks.

No data breaches have been confirmed from the cyberattacks, sources said.

Police said the man rented a domestic server under a false name five times in 2016. That same server was used when JAXA was targeted.

The man admitted that he illegally contracted use of the server, police said. He has already left Japan, they added.

Police have confirmed that the man sent his fake ID to a group of Chinese hackers so they could use the server. The group, called Tick, is believed to be under the influence of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Police also identified and interviewed another Chinese man who used a false name and signed up with a different server used in the cyberattacks. A case against this man has not been built because his server activity was less extensive.

But the man has admitted to signing an illegal contract and hinted that he did so under instruction from the PLA, police said.

That man has also already left Japan, police said.

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