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The Yomiuri Shimbun Akira Amari, the Liberal Democratic Party’s chairperson of the Headquarters for the Promotion of Economic Security, speaks at a joint meeting with the party’s Research Commission on Security and other organizations in Tokyo on Friday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
15:14 JST, May 19, 2024
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday began discussions on enabling the government to conduct “active cyber defense.”
The LDP hopes to increase Japan’s cyber defense capabilities to a level on par with North American and European countries by authorizing the government to access an attacker’s server to neutralize their attack as well as other actions.
The government will meet with a panel of experts for the first time in early June and plans to submit a related bill to the extraordinary Diet session this autumn.
Akira Amari, the party’s chairperson of the Headquarters for the Promotion of Economic Security, said on Friday: “We will firmly establish a system that meets international standards to protect our citizens. We hope our efforts lead to the foundation of that system.”
His remarks came at a joint meeting of the headquarters he chairs, the party’s Research Commission on Security and other organizations held at the party headquarters.
The Japanese government and the LDP’s heightened alert over cybercrime comes after Russia conducted large-scale cyber-attacks at the launch of its armed aggression against Ukraine and Chinese hackers were suspected of conducting malware attacks on critical infrastructure in other countries.
In major Western countries, the public and private sectors have been cooperating to deal with cyber-attacks, with operators of key infrastructure now required to report cyber-attacks to the government.
In cases where it finds the provision of security necessary, the government will investigate communications data and take steps to prevent cybercriminals from launching an attack.
At the meeting, the government presented the following policies: (1) boosting cooperation between the public and private sectors, including through information sharing; (2) utilizing communications data to detect the source of an attack; and (3) empowering the government to access an attacker’s server to neutralize an attack.
The government also suggested reorganizing the National center for Incident readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) into a new command post that would gather and analyze data and customize countermeasures.
Diet members who attended the meeting called for the operational structure and budget to be expanded and for the establishment of a system that ensures international cooperation.
Adopting active cyber defense raises issues, such as its compatibility with the “secrecy of any means of communication” guaranteed by the Constitution.
After the meeting, Itsunori Onodera, chairperson of the party’s Research Commission on Security, told reporters, “I want to deepen the discussion on how to balance the issue with public welfare.”
The government is considering revising the Basic Law on Cybersecurity and the Law on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access and will begin full-fledged discussions at the meeting with the panel of experts.
“We will accelerate our work so we can present a bill as soon as possible,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi at a press conference on Friday.
