Washington: Visiting Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas signed a memorandum on strengthening their countries’ cooperation on cybersecurity, when they met in Washington on Friday.

The two countries will introduce same-level safety standards for government-procured software, aiming to reduce the risk of damage from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

Under the memorandum, Japan and the United States will establish a system that seeks safety-related information from software suppliers.

They will also advance efforts to strengthen their Indo-Pacific partners’ cybersecurity capabilities, in hopes of countering China.

“There is urgent need for us to establish security systems for software, internet of things, or IoT, and other new fields,” Nishimura told reporters after the meeting with Mayorkas.

In its national security strategy, revised late in 2022, the Japanese government said it will beef up cybersecurity measures.

The memorandum signed Friday marks the first step of Japan-U.S. cooperation in the cyber field after Japan’s strategy revision.

JIJI Press