TOKYO >> Tokyo's cyber and information security vulnerabilities remain a concern as close ally Japan seeks to strengthen as a reliable defense partner as the United States faces security threats around the world That's what officials and experts say.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is overseeing a once-unthinkable military buildup, told the U.S. Congress this month that Japan can meet the challenges facing its partners, from Russia's war in Ukraine to an increasingly assertive China. He said he is working hard to help.
This comes as the allies announced new areas of military cooperation, including leveraging Japan's industrial capabilities to boost defense production and developing new technologies with AUKUS security partners Australia and the UK. It was about.
But Tokyo has suffered high-profile hacks in recent years, including the closure of its largest port, the intrusion into the servers of major defense contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and even the government's own cyber security center. Japan is not alone in being targeted by such attacks, but they do raise long-standing concerns about whether the Japanese government can fully support its security partners.
“This was really the Achilles' heel for Japan and the United States,” said Mark Manantan, director of cybersecurity and critical technologies at Pacific Forum, a Hawaii think tank.
Officials and experts say Japan faces an uphill battle in building its systems and securing the human resources needed to fill these vulnerabilities.
Former US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair visited Tokyo in 2022 and told parliamentarians and journalists that Japan's weak cyber defenses were the biggest liability in the two countries' security alliance. .
Later that year, Japan announced plans to hire more talent for cyber capabilities. However, the pace of recruitment is expected to slow due to fierce competition for these workers and higher salaries in the private sector, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Defense.
A US State Department spokesperson said Japan's “ability to adequately protect sensitive data and information” is taken into account when identifying opportunities for cooperation.
Asked whether the U.S. government had expressed such concerns to the Japanese side, Japan's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were in close communication on the issue, but did not provide details of the discussions. was not disclosed.
In 2022, Prime Minister Kishida announced a historic doubling of defense spending over five years, including a move to quadruple the core cyber defense force to approximately 4,000 personnel with the support of 16,000 support staff. The plan was announced.
Kazuhisa Shimada, a former vice minister of defense and one of the plan's key architects, told Reuters it would be difficult to meet the recruitment goal within that time frame.
“Cybersecurity personnel were cautious when they found out this number,” he said. “Japan as a whole has a shortage of cybersecurity personnel.”
The Ministry of Defense announced in April that it had hired 2,230 core members so far, with plans to add another 180 by March 2025, but remained on track to meet that goal. It has not been disclosed how many support staff are in place.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara has proposed easing physical fitness requirements for cyber recruits and offering them salaries of up to 23 million yen ($149,108), the same as top bureaucrats.
However, according to Ituro Nishimoto, CEO of Japanese cybersecurity company Luck, this is only half of what senior professionals in the industry earn, and unlike private companies, the government The company must employ only
Japan also said it wants to pre-emptively hunt down and neutralize potential cyber threats in 2022, many of which originate across borders, a tactic commonly used by allies. .
However, the government has not yet submitted legislation to parliament that would allow such attacks. This is controversial given the country's pacifist constitutional constraints.
Akihisa Nagashima, a member of the ruling party and former deputy defense minister, said the amendments may not be submitted to parliament until next year, noting that “Japan is subject to cyberattacks on a daily basis.” When you think about it, he said, this is unfortunate.
Japan's National Police Agency said the average daily number of suspicious internet accesses, a broad indicator that includes cyberattacks, hit a record high of 9,144 last year, surpassing the previous record of 7,708 in 2022. announced.
Hopes that Japan will be able to strengthen international cooperation on defense projects have been further boosted by the Japanese government's recent relaxation of rules on defense exports.
For example, the country will be able to export Patriot air defense missiles manufactured under license to the United States, as well as advanced fighter jets being jointly developed by Britain and Italy.
It would be a leap for Japan to supply weapons to a country at war, but the rule change opens the door for foreign arms makers to tap into industrial capabilities that were previously off-limits.
But even that can be tangled up in bureaucracy. Geoffrey Hornung, an expert on Japanese security policy at Rand University, said projects like fighter jets are burdensome because Japan doesn't have the systems in place for companies like the United States and other allies to handle sensitive information. It said it was being done under a bespoke framework. Co., Ltd.
A bill proposed in February aims to rectify this, but the new review system could take up to five years to become operational, said Jun Osawa, a senior fellow at the Nakasone Peace Institute in Tokyo. Stated.
“Japanese companies do not have a culture of handling information that requires clearance. Clearance takes time,” Osawa says.
Even as Japan produces more weapons and restarts its defense industry, all the hurdles continue to pile up, officials say.
Former Pentagon official Bill Greenwald dismissed the idea that Japan could become involved in Western security projects like AUKUS as “political theater.”
“Japan, whose security system is still in a peacetime state and immature, has no chance of doing so,” he said.
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Reported by Kaori Kaneko, Tim Kelly, and John Geddie in Tokyo. Additional reporting by his David Brunstromm in Washington.
