Tokyo police are investigating a leak of Toshiba technology to a South Korean company. Police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of a former engineer at a Toshiba-affiliated chipmaker who was suspected of improperly providing technical data to SK Hynix Inc.

This would mark Japan's first criminal investigation into a leak of advanced technology from the IT sector overseas, the paper said. The Yomiuri newspaper quoted investigators as saying the former employee was suspected of providing information relating to Toshiba's NAND flash memory technology to SK Hynix after he started working at the South Korean company.

NAND memory is a key source of profit for Toshiba, whose key competitors include South Korea's Samsung and SanDisk.