Government Considers Expanding Domestic Communication Surveillance, Plans to Amend Active Cyber Defense Law; Financial Services Agency to Establish Cybersecurity Guidelines for Cryptocurrency Exchanges in April

Key Points of This Article

• Emergency response package decided on the 6th to establish a new rescue team
• Financial Services Agency to formulate guidelines for exchanges in April

Considering Expansion of Communication Surveillance to Domestic Communications and Legal Revisions

The government has begun considering including domestic communications in the acquisition and analysis of communication information to detect signs of cyber attacks. This was reported by Yomiuri Shimbun and Jiji Press on the 9th. The aim is to expedite the amendment of the active cyber defense-related law.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno stated at a press conference on the 9th that they would "broadly listen to opinions, including proposals from the Liberal Democratic Party to expand the target to domestic communications, and proceed with discussions." Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed Cybersecurity Minister Toshihiro Furukawa during a related ministerial meeting on the 6th to "proceed with discussions on amending the 'Cyber Response Capability Enhancement Law' to strengthen information collection capabilities."

Active cyber defense refers to a system that captures signs of an attack before it materializes and, if necessary, takes actions such as accessing the source server of the attack or neutralizing it. Among the related laws, measures for neutralization were enacted on October 1. The acquisition and analysis of communication information is scheduled to begin in the fall of next year, and the current law limits the targets to communications between foreign entities and between foreign and domestic entities.

Domestic Devices Being Used as Launch Pads

The background for expanding the targets includes the risk that domestic communication devices taken over by overseas attackers are used as launch pads for attacks on companies and other entities. Even if the origin of the attack is overseas, communications that are completed domestically cannot be analyzed under the current law. The "Cybersecurity Emergency Response Package" decided on the 6th explicitly states that measures against domestic devices that are misused as launch pads will be compiled by the end of the year.

The package also includes plans to establish an "Outreach Team (tentative name)" by November to contact organizations at risk of damage from the National Cyber Coordination Center.

Efforts are also underway to establish a "Public-Private Cyber Rescue Team (tentative name)" that will dispatch specialized personnel from both the public and private sectors to affected organizations. The preamble identifies the establishment of systems, including the method of information collection, as a medium- to long-term challenge.

In the design of the system, the alignment with the "secrecy of communication" guaranteed by the constitution will be a point of discussion. According to Yomiuri Shimbun, the government is expected to discuss this in an expert meeting.

Financial Services Agency's Guidelines for Exchanges

In the field of cryptocurrency, the Financial Services Agency has announced its "Guidelines for Strengthening Cybersecurity in Cryptocurrency Exchange Operations" on April 3, 2026.

The guidelines point out that due to the characteristics of cryptocurrencies, which can be stolen instantly and easily transferred across borders, they are "prone to cyber attacks aimed at theft." It calls for a public-private response that combines self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance, as there are limits to the responses of individual businesses.

The text of the package decided on the 6th does not limit the measures to specific industries, and the separate list of measures only includes requests for the steady implementation of measures for financial institutions, with no specific mention of cryptocurrency exchanges. Relevant ministries have been asked to quickly gather information from businesses that have suffered significant damage, such as data breaches, and report it to the National Cyber Coordination Center.

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