Japan to enhance government role in cybersecurity

TOKYO: Amid a spurt in global online criminal activities, Japan today said it will take a more active role in bolstering cyberspace security.

A draft guideline prepared by a government panel discussing the matter envisages upgrading the panel into a policy forum around fiscal 2015 by establishing a relevant law.

The move comes in line with the government's goal of successfully hosting the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

"Ensuring cybersecurity is an extremely important challenge in terms of national security and crisis management," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a meeting of the panel held at his office and also attended by Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera among others.

"We will tackle the issue more aggressively," Abe said.

The envisaged policy forum would cooperate with other government bodies, including the National Security Council that makes decisions on foreign and defense policies, the draft said.

Its secretariat, to be headed by a senior bureaucrat, would have contact with other countries' authorities as well as with the private sector in Japan to prepare necessary policy.

The ruling coalition led by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party has already agreed on a bill to give a legal basis to the envisaged policy forum, aiming to submit it to the Diet during the ongoing session through next month. (Kyodo) ANV