Japan Lower House Passes Active Cyber Defense Bill

   Tokyo, April 8 (Jiji Press)--The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, passed an active cyber defense bill on Tuesday and sent it to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.
   The bill was supported by both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan after being revised to respect the secrecy of communications, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
   The bill is expected to be enacted by the end of the current ordinary Diet session, with the government planning to fully introduce an active cyber defense system in 2027.
   According to the bill, the government would collect and analyze data on communications between foreign countries and between Japan and other countries, even in peacetime. If it detects signs of impending major cyberattacks, police and the Self-Defense Forces would take steps to neutralize threats, such as deleting hostile programs in potential perpetrators' servers.
   In consideration of personal privacy, the government would monitor only mechanical information such as internet protocol addresses and character strings of attack commands, excluding the "substantive content" of communications, such as the body of emails.

(2025/04/08-17:42)

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