It's one of the most annoying things about the internet - hundreds of emails from bizarre companies flooding inboxes.

But now officials in Japan have banned spam in a desperate bid to crackdown on the practice.

The country has been flooded with cyberattacks on a series of government offices, corporations and individuals in recent years.

Authorities have struggled to tackle the growing problem without any concrete law allowing them to track down offenders.

The new law criminalising the creation or distribution of computer viruses and spam emails was passed in Japanese parliament last Friday.

Distributing a computer virus now could now carry a three year jail sentence or a fine of 500,000 yen (￡3,850).

The acquisition or storage of a virus is punishable by up to two years in prison or 300,000 yen (￡2,300) in fines.

Sending e-mail messages containing pornography to a random number of people is also now illegal.

But critics of the new law suggest that it is too harsh and could breach privacy requirements guaranteeing the confidentiality of communications.

The law will allow data to be seized or copied from computer servers that are connected to people who are being investigated.

It would also enable authorities to force Internet service providers to keep communications logs for up to 60 days.

The move could have wide-reaching implications for governments around the world as they seek to impose tighter regulation online.

Governments are expected to look to Japan to see how well the regulation works.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)