Asian companies are increasingly alert to the risks of bribery, although they aren’t attuned to the behavior regulators often see as good compliance practice, according to two experts speaking on a panel in Tokyo.

A focus by U.S. prosecutors on punishing individuals for wrongdoing has grabbed the attention of companies in Asia, said Ben Rowse, managing director for Asia at investigations firm Nardello & Co., and Christopher Frey, a lawyer at law firm Paul Weiss. The risk of individuals being prosecuted has caused a “mind shift” among companies, whereas even a penalty as large as $300 million on a company “isn’t going to sink the ship,” said Mr. Rowse, speaking Thursday at a joint event hosted by WSJ Risk & Compliance and Dow Jones Risk & Compliance.

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