Overview
- The National Police Agency signed a coordination agreement with nine major banks on Thursday, May 28, 2026, and the online inquiry system will begin operation on June 1.
- Under the new process prefectural police will send account queries via the NPA to member banks and can receive same‑day answers that allow rapid requests to freeze accounts holding fraud proceeds.
- The nine participating banks are Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizuho, Resona, Japan Post Bank (Yucho), Seven Bank, SBI Shinsei, AEON Bank, and Rakuten Bank.
- Police say the change responds to a specific gap: paper or postal inquiries once took days to weeks while fraud rings typically move stolen money through multiple accounts within one to two days.
- Authorities plan to invite more banks, discuss coordination with crypto exchanges, and press forward with legal changes now before the Diet to add undercover account tactics for investigations.