The defense and foreign ministers of the US and Japan have agreed to boost co-operation in the fields of cybersecurity and outer space. The ministers decided for the first time that a concerted cyberattack against Japan could be considered an armed offense, as stipulated in the US-Japan Security Treaty.
The ministers affirmed that international law applies in cyberspace and that a cyber attack could, in certain circumstances, constitute an armed attack for Article V of the US-Japan Security Treaty
Japan’s economy is faltering, South Korea’s currency is plunging, and both countries have been caught in the middle of U.S. efforts to isolate Chinese tech firm Huawei. As President Trump arrives in Japan, the fallout from his trade war with China is reverberating around the region.
In Japan, there is considerable support for Trump’s tight line on China, but that’s mixed with concern about the effect of the trade war and China’s economic slowdown is already having on Japanese exports and factory output.
The new rule by Japan that might be effective from August 1 will be impacted when Japan will be restricting foreign ownership to the IT and telecom industries.
Last week, the U.S. placed Huawei, the Chinese multinational company on a trade blacklist effectively prohibiting U.S. firms from doing transactions with the world’s largest telecom network gear maker and also escalating a trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies. Huawei has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government, military, or intelligence services.
By inking an executive order for restricting US tech purchases by “foreign adversaries” that are deemed a national security risk, as well as putting Huawei on a government blacklist, the US has expertly cut off Huawei’s oxygen supply by limiting its access to critical chips and software from American companies.
However, Japan wants to prevent leakage of technology for national cyber-security, thus defending output and technological foundation that to be applied to 20 sectors in information and communications industries.
