Initial Disclosure Date: Jun 24, 2013

On June 20, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) released its manifest, called J-File, to prepare for the House of Councilors election on July 28. Here is the gist of LDP’s cybersecurity policy:

56: Japanese Government’s CIO
Japanese Government’s CIO will have code management for all of ICT and cybersecurity-related budgets to release the information to the public. The government will also consider if it is better to establish the position of CTO to support CIO.

57: Cybersecurity and economic growth
The Japanese government will establish a dynamic cyber defense and back-up systems in the Japan Coast Guard, Ministry of Defense, and National Police Agency, as good as in the United States as soon as possible. The government will also establish Cyber Range and an advanced cybersecurity certificate system to enhance the level of Japan’s cybersecurity. The government aims to invest more in cybersecurity and create 100,000 new jobs in the advanced information security industry for economic growth.

173: Defense of Japan from emerging threats
The government will increase cooperation over cybersecurity with the United States to enhance the capability to respond to cyber threats.

181: Better cybersecurity
Unfortunately, although the current capability is not enough to respond to cyber contingency, the current policy aims to establish sufficient capability by 2020. It is indispensable to shorten the time frame within five years and create funding and budgets for education, training, and research and development. It is also essential to revise the current contingency act to cover cyber threats, make a new law to protect classified information, and strengthen the capability of information security-related organizations.

International partnerships are very important. Japan already started Cyber Dialogue with the United States. Tokyo and Washington can strengthen their tie through bilateral cooperation and participation in international conferences.

The Japanese government also needs to establish a system to screen products for procurement and cybersecurity. It is necessary to monitor all of information systems that belong to the government for security purposes.

While more budgets are needed to introduce cybersecurity-related technologies from overseas if necessary, Japan has to allocate more budgets to develop domestic capability for national security.

191: More countermeasures against new types of crimes including cyber crimes
The government aims to establish a Japanese version of the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA).

201: More robust and disaster-proof ICT infrastructure
The Great East Japan Earthquake damaged a lot of undersea cables. The government will establish more cables in different locations.

参考情報:

• Liberal Democratic Party, “J-File 2013 sogo seisaku-shu [J-File 2013  comprehensive manifest],” June 20, 2013,
  https://www.jimin.jp/policy/policy_topics/121526.html

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