History of Japan-US cybersecurity cooperation

l  2009: The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) published “Internet Economy White Paper: Achieving the Full Potential of the Internet Economy in Japan” and recommended Japan and the US to initiate Internet Economy Dialogue with the academia, government, and industry. [1]

l  June 2010: Japanese Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Kazuhiro Haraguchi and U.S. Ambassador Philip Verveer agreed to launch the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on Internet Economy.

l  November 1, 2010: the first Director-General level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Tokyo.[2]

l  November 13, 2010: Prime Minister Naoto Kan and President Barack Obama held a summit meeting in Yokohama and agreed that the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy is “intended to deepen bilateral policy coordination and lay the groundwork for greater U.S.-Japan cooperation in international fora.”[3]

l  June 9 to 10, 2011: the second Director-General level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Washington DC.[4]

l  June 21, 2011: The U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee (SCC) meeting in Washington DC included cybersecurity cooperation in its joint statement for the first time.[5]

l  September 2011: The Japanese and U.S. governments held the first strategic dialogue on cybersecurity from regional security perspectives in Tokyo.[6]

l  March 21, 2012: The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and ACCJ hosted an industry forum on Internet Economy-related policy cooperation between Japan and the United States and issued a joint statement.[7]

l  March 22 to 23, 2012: the third Director-General level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Tokyo. Agreed on the establishment of a bilateral working group to discuss cloud computing service issues.[8]

l  April 30, 2012: Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and President Barack Obama met in Washington DC and “agreed on the need to deepen bilateral coordination on cyber issues.”[9]

l  October 18, 2012: The U.S.-Japan Cloud Computing Working Group issued a report.[10]

l  October 18 to 10, 2012: the fourth Director-General level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Washington DC.[11]

l  January 17, 2013: Japanese and U.S. defense and foreign affairs officials held a working-level meeting in Tokyo to start full-fledged discussions on how to revise the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation. Reportedly, the revision is likely to cover cybersecurity.[12]

l  May 9 to 10, 2013: Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue in Tokyo, based on the agreement made by Prime Minister Noda and President Obama in April 2012.[13]

l  September 2013: The Japanese and U.S. governments reportedly agree to include cybersecurity in the revised Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation. The Subcommitee for Defense Cooperation under the SCC will take more than one year to discuss specific statements to include in the guidelines.[14]

l  October 3, 2013: Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met in Tokyo prior to a SCC meeting. They agreed to establish the Cyber Defense Policy Working Group, share information on cyber-attacks and cyber defense technologies, craft a guideline to counter cyber-attacks jointly, and conduct training.[15]

l  December 5 to 12, 2013: About 4,500 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and 1,500 U.S. Army personnel conducted an annual joint command post exercise, Yamasakura, in Hokkaido, mainly at JGSDF’s Camp Higashi-Chitose. For the first time they covered a cyber exercise to simulate how to respond together to malware infection of their command and control system. [16]

l  February 2 to 3, 2014: the first meeting of the Cyber Defense Policy Working Group was held at the Ministry of Defense (MOD), Tokyo, co-chaired by Mr. Ro Manabe, Deputy Chief of Defense Policy Bureau and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense John Davis. Approximately 20 SDF and US forces officers also participated and discussed how to share information on cyber-attacks and their attribution and how to move forward education and training. The governments agreed to start discussing how to define “armed attacks” in cyberspace and include how to respond to cyber-attacks jointly in the new version of the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, which will be complied by the end of 2014. At his press conference on February 4, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera stated that Japan needs to define what constitute “armed attacks” in cyberspace and the Japanese government needs to exchange opinions about this with the US government.[17] The Working Group is holding a meeting about twice a year and the next one will be held in the US in summer 2014.[18] The MOD and DOD reportedly had planned to discuss starting a new program between them to send SDF officers or non-commissioned officers to U.S. military’s educational courses on cyber defenses in order to enhance SDF’s capability and strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance in Fiscal Year 2015.[19]

l  March 12 to 13, 2014: the MIC and State Department held the 5^th Director General-level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Tokyo. On March 12, Keidanren and ACCJ released the U.S.-Japan Internet Economy Industry Forum Joint Statement 2014” and asked the Japanese and US governments about what actions they had taken to industry’s recommendations and suggestions.[20]

l  April 10, 2014: the Japanese and U.S. governments held the second Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue in Washington DC to discuss various cybersecurity issues such as capacity building, cybercrimes, national security issues in cyberspace, the protection of critical infrastructure, and cooperation with other international partners. The Japanese delegation was led by Mr. Jun Shimmi, Japan’s Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy and Deputy Director General of Foreign Policy Bureau and included the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, Cabinet Secretariat (Situations Response and Crisis Management), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), MOD, National Information Security Center (NISC), National Police Agency (NPA), and National Security Council. The U.S. delegation was led by Mr. Christopher Painter, Coordinator for Cyber Issues, U.S. Department of State, and included the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and National Institute of Standards and Technology.[21]

l  April 24, 2014: Prime Minister Abe and President Obama had a summit meeting in Tokyo and confirmed cooperation on regional and international efforts to provide support for other countries, especially the ASEAN, to help them enhance cyber security such as the deterrence of high tech crimes and develop cyber confidence-building measures.[22]

l  June 2014: The Japanese and U.S. governments reportedly agreed to support ten ASEAN countries for its technical capacity building in cyber crime investigation since China is believed to launch cyber-attacks through servers in Southeast Asia. The two allies contribute 400,000 U.S. dollars in total (150,000 from Tokyo and 250,000 from Washington) to the United Nations to send cyber crime investigators, who belong to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, to ASEAN countries.[23]

l  July 7, 2014: Catherine Novelli, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, held a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and expressed U.S. interests in strengthening Japan-U.S. cooperation to counter cyber crimes.[24]

l  August 18 to 19, 2014: the second meeting of the Cyber Defense Policy Working Group was held at the Pentagon, co-chaired by Mr. Atsuo Suzuki, Deputy Director General of the Defense Policy Bureau, the Japanese Ministry of Defense, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense John Davis. Japanese SDF officers and MOFA officials as well as US military officers and diplomats also participated to discuss capacity-building for better cyber defenses, joint development of defense equipment, and information-sharing between the governments and defense industry.  [25]

l  September 16 and 17, 2014: the sixth Director-General level meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy in Washington DC agreed to “continue to share best practices and cooperate on joint awareness-raising activities” through bilateral and multilateral fora and collaborate for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.[26]

l  October 8, 2014: the Japanese and U.S. governments released the Interim Report on the Revision of the U.S.-Japan Guidelines for Defense Cooperation” and declared that the revised version would include cooperation on space and cyber security. Specifically, the two governments share information on cyber threats and vulnerabilities both in peacetime and emergency and enhance cyber security for mission assurance.[27]

l  November 16, 2014: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and President Barack Obama met in Brisbane, Australia, during the G20 Leaders’ Summit. This was the first trilateral meeting after 2007. Their Joint Media Release emphasizes “their firm commitment to deepen the already strong security and defense cooperation” and refers to trilateral cooperation on cyber capacity building.[28]

l  December 8 to 14, 2014: about 4,500 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and about 2,000 U.S. Service members conducted the largest bilateral command post exercise in Japan, Yama Sakura 67, on Camp Asaka, Tokyo. This exercise covered multiple threats including a remote island battle, ballistic missile, and cyber-attacks.[29]