Takaichi’s government held a ministerial meeting on cybersecurity on Monday evening to discuss countermeasures following a series of major data breaches affecting Japanese companies and other organisations. The meeting brought together Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa, and the ministers responsible for finance and defence, among others.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Takaichi said the recent attacks had resulted in large-scale information leaks and other damage.
“The recent series of cyberattacks against Japanese companies and other organizations has resulted in a number of major incidents involving large-scale information leaks and other damage,” she said.
“The situation is serious, with growing concerns about civil damages resulting from the misuse of leaked information. We must urgently strengthen our countermeasures,” Takaichi added.
She identified simulated cyberattack tests using generative artificial intelligence and the establishment of a cyberattack monitoring network extending to small and medium-sized enterprises as measures that would be implemented to strengthen Japan’s cyberdefence capabilities.
Takaichi also announced that the government would compile a package of emergency measures by next week, calling on ministers to examine and coordinate the necessary responses, including financial arrangements, without delay.
“Each minister should promptly examine and coordinate the necessary measures, including financial arrangements,” she said.
“Above all, let us bring together the full strength of the government and accelerate these efforts,” Takaichi added.
The meeting followed a request over the weekend from GMO Internet Group for the government to introduce active cyberdefence measures after hackers breached the company’s servers.
Earlier on Monday, Kihara declined to disclose how the government would respond to GMO’s requests, arguing that commenting on individual cyberattacks could reveal its strategy.
“As a general matter, the government receives various forms of information from affected organizations and provides the necessary support and takes appropriate measures according to the circumstances of each case,” Kihara said at a news conference.
He explained that the police, the Defence Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces would be responsible for determining whether to implement access-neutralisation measures. These measures would involve breaking into an attacker’s server to neutralise the threat.
Takaichi reiterated the government’s position on Monday evening, indicating that authorities would consider a range of possible responses.
The government would “strategically select and implement all available response options, including measures to neutralize unauthorized access,” she said.
The government’s response comes after GMO Internet Group disclosed last week that it had suffered a security breach potentially affecting 26,739 servers. The incident involved customers’ trading accounts at more than 70 securities firms, foreign-exchange providers and other businesses in Japan and overseas.
Reports have already emerged that some users of the company’s foreign-exchange margin trading service suffered financial losses exceeding one million yen following transactions conducted through unauthorised access to their accounts.
In a blog post published on his personal website on Sunday, GMO Chief Executive Officer Masatoshi Kumagai apologised for the company’s failure to protect its customers. He pledged to compensate victims for their losses, in addition to providing a uniform payment of ¥5,000 ($32) to all users.
Kumagai also called on the government to help the company deploy active cyberdefence measures, arguing that cooperation between public authorities and private businesses had become essential to protecting Japan’s digital infrastructure.
“Now is the time to protect Japan — and the internet — through public–private cooperation,” Kumagai wrote.
He warned that, in his assessment, “the internet itself is now on the verge of breaking down.”
Kumagai acknowledged that his request for government intervention could face opposition because such measures have typically been limited to operators of critical infrastructure, including utilities and transportation companies. He also said he understood the government’s authority to determine when and how to intervene.
“If we dismiss this as merely a private-sector incident, the same methods will next threaten every kind of social infrastructure and personal asset,” Kumagai said, urging the government to act under the Active Cyber Defense Act.
He described the incident as an opportunity to strengthen the implementation of the recently enacted legislation.
“This is a crucial opportunity to make the Active Cyber Defense Act, which only came into force on Oct. 1, function as a living, effective system that genuinely protects citizens’ assets,” he wrote.
Passed by parliament in May 2025, the legislation aims to bring Japan’s cybersecurity infrastructure to a level equalling or exceeding that of Western countries.
The law took effect on October 1 this year and establishes a framework for what are known as access-neutralisation measures. These provisions allow the government to prevent cyberattacks at their source and neutralise threats before they develop into attacks.
The GMO breach has also raised questions about the origin of the cyberattack and the role of artificial intelligence tools in such incidents.
In a blog post published last week, GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae, a subsidiary of GMO Internet Group, announced that it had traced the attack against the company to an artificial intelligence tool called Artex.
An investigation by US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike into Artex-related attacks in South Korea suggested that the threats most likely originated in China. However, no direct connection between China and the attack on GMO Internet Group has been established at present.
As the government prepares its emergency cybersecurity package for next week, the incident has brought renewed attention to the challenges of protecting personal information, financial accounts and digital infrastructure from increasingly damaging cyberattacks. The response will also test how Japan’s Active Cyber Defense Act is applied in practice, particularly when a breach affects a private-sector company beyond the critical infrastructure operators traditionally covered by such interventions.
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