How to encourage administration to handle plagiarism? I obtained my PhD about five years ago and immediately took up a postdoctoral position at a national lab in Japan to continue my research in computer engineering.

Over those five years I worked with the person who is now my supervisor, and trusted him in the same way I would trust any ordinary person, only to learn (too late!) that my trust was misplaced.

After working on a large project of his for about two full-time years, he forced
me to "leave the project". Now that the large project is nearing completion, I have since discovered that he has started to present my ideas and my work as his own.

The administration vacillates between feigning ignorance and admitting there is a problem but then claiming that they are powerless to do anything about it.

What can I do? What should I do - and why?
It is harder to deal with plagiarism in oriental countries than in the western world. It's even harder when your employer is a national lab.

To answer your question, how to encourage the administration to handle plagiarism?

There is something you need to know (I suspect you already know it to some extent), orientals tend to treat their faces much more seriously than anything else. This is the key.

Things may not be that serious as you would think. So far, he only presented the idea and the work as if they were his. But I agree that it's a bad sign. You need to deal with it as soon as possible before he goes any further.

Edit (I would like to argue that we do not have sufficient information to tell if plagiarism will happen or already happened.)
 End of Edit

From what you described in the comments, your supervisor seems to have personal issue with you. You might have some conflicts with him without you even knowing it. The key word face is the most probable reason I could think of. There is probably some cultural thing buried somewhere you would need to figure out if you want to resolve it. It may not be that serious as you think, could be just misunderstanding.

There is some different thinkings between oriental and western world. In the western world, people take individual ownership for what they think and do. In the oriental world, some tend to think the ideas and the works are products of the whole team/group. Thus, the head of the group would present the idea and the work as the head of the group. This could be construed as plagiarism in the western world

You said they are powerless to do anything about it. This is probably due to that thinking. I must say that changing a culture takes huge efforts and long time. If you want to talk to them to encourage them to handle plagiarism, you need to


  Talk to them politely, professionally and discreetly.