Japan to set up bureau to tackle state-sponsored cyberattacks from China, other countries

Japan on Thursday said it plans to set up a new bureau to respond to serious cybercrime including state-sponsored attacks from China, Russia, and North Korea, local media reported.

Japan's National Police Agency aims to revise the police law in the ordinary Diet session next year to start operations of the bureau in April 2022.

The agency is also planning to constitute a team, comprised of some 200 investigators recruited from police departments nationwide, by March 2023, Kyodo News reported citing officials.

Officers adept at cyber and internet probes will work for the team, which will focus on serious cases, including those targeting administrative offices and core infrastructures, requiring high technologies for investigation, or causing massive simultaneous damage nationwide, they said.

The team, which will cooperate with prefectural police departments and foreign institutions as needed, can seize and analyze evidence, arrest suspects or send them to prosecutors, they said.

"We are hardly assuming a situation where the team alone arrests a suspect," said the official.

The new bureau will be responsible for information analysis and coordination with private companies, as well as promoting digital policy and the use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.

This comes over months after Tokyo police filed a case on against a Chinese systems engineer, who is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for allegedly taking part in cyberattacks targeting the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and 200 other Japanese companies and research institutions in 2016 and 2017.

According to reports, the Chinese military ordered hackers to attack hundreds of targets in Japan, including the country's space agency and defence-related firms.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied the allegations made by Japan, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin saying: "China is firmly opposed to any country or institution [using allegations of] cyberattacks to throw mud at China."

( With inputs from ANI )