Japan Approves ¥10 Billion Emergency Cybersecurity Package After Wave of Corporate Hacks

The Cabinet approved the money on Friday morning. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said ¥2 billion would go on using AI to look for weaknesses in critical government systems, ¥4.1 billion on cybersecurity police and ¥3.8 billion on tightening security at the Digital Agency, according to TECHx Media.

The package matters because Japan's response so far has been mostly reactive. Many of the targets have been private companies, and some have publicly asked the government for help. The new measures put the state into incident response and vulnerability hunting, and they tie that work to AI developers.

At a ministerial meeting on Friday, Takaichi said the aim was to "enhance cyberresilience" and to "alleviate public concerns" by putting the measures in place quickly and effectively, TECHx Media reported. On Thursday, government spokesman Minoru Kihara called the package "the first step towards transitioning to a society that meets the world's top standards of cyber resilience," AFP reported.

The Two New Teams

The government will set up a team of top specialists later this month to run penetration tests and strengthen security. Japanese media referred to it as a "Top Gun Talent Team". A second group of government officials and private-sector experts, which local reports called a "cyber rescue team", will be sent to help companies dealing with an attack. AFP, citing the Yomiuri Shimbun and Jiji Press, said a government secretariat would be set up within the current fiscal year to coordinate those deployments.

Takaichi said all information on cyberattacks should be gathered at the National Cybersecurity Office, and operators of critical infrastructure will have to report attacks to it as quickly as possible. The government will also start discussing whether to block websites used for malicious activity. Guidelines on managing personal data will be updated by next January to require companies to delete personal information they no longer need, so it cannot be stolen.

The package also includes cooperation with AI companies against cyber threats. Crypto Briefing reported in late October that Tokyo wanted better access to high-performance American AI models to find and fix weaknesses in public-sector networks and essential services. That builds on a July revision of Japan's AI policy guidelines, which stressed closer work with US developers. No company has been named as a partner.

GMO and the Artex Tool

The most visible incident has been at GMO Internet Group. TECHx Media reported that a breach of the group's Onamae.com service affected more than 26,000 servers, including accounts used for foreign exchange trading, and that hackers held customers' personal information for ransom. GMO publicly asked the government to step in, which led to an urgent ministerial meeting last week. Last month, GMO's information security arm said a Chinese AI cybersecurity tool called Artex had been used in several recent hacks of Japanese companies, according to AFP.

The package adds to powers Japan has built up over the past 18 months. The Active Cyber Defense Act passed in May 2025, and a provision that took effect last month lets police and the Self-Defense Forces disrupt attackers at their source. On Thursday, the National Cybersecurity Office issued guidance telling companies to monitor continuously for vulnerabilities, apply patches and check whether back-end administrator pages are publicly reachable.

The specialist team is due to be in place before the end of November. The updated personal data guidelines are due by January.