Partnerships in Japan, what is all the fuss about?  

With China land-grabbing South Sea islands to their south, North Korea threatening shipping to their east and Russia, their northern neighbour, engaged in open warfare in Eurasia, Japan has every reason to be increasing their defence spending and concerned partner nations are all keen to strengthen relations in support.  

In the UK Govt’s Integrated Review, Japan was described as “one of our closest strategic partners” and in December 2022, the UK and Japan, along with Italy, confirmed plans to develop the next generation of attack aircraft together in the Global Combat Air Programme.

In January 2023 a massive UK-Japan Defence Agreement was signed and in May, at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, the UK-Japan Hiroshima Accords were signed.  All of this means huge trade opportunities between the two nations and the Agreement and the Accords both specifically mentioned cyber as being an important component for future collaboration.

NCSC Cyber First hits Japan

As part of a wider partnership, the UK National Cyber Security Centre has exported the hugely successful CyberFirst Programme to Japan to help stimulate cyber education for 14-18 year olds and the first set of student certificates are being presented in Tokyo on Thursday.  Looking closer to home, Cyber Wales has had a proactive relationship with the Japan Cluster of Security Professionals for 6 years, including exchange visits, company formations, trading, and exchange students studying cyber. In line with the UK-Japan Hiroshima Accords, this relationship has now spawned Cyber Hiroshima, the first cyber security cluster of its kind in Japan launched in partnership with Cyber Wales in September 2023.  

Joining forces once again, Cyber Wales was represented at the CyberFirst ceremony this week and, to commemorate the achievements of the students, staged a Capture the Flag cyber competition for all the students.  The Cyber Hiroshima team managed the CTF at the Ambassador’s Residence in the British Embassy, Tokyo while Cyber Wales member company, SudoCyber, ran the CTF labs from their headquarters in Brecon.  Their award-winning gamified online learning platform, capable of delivering cyber training in any language, ran labs simultaneously in English and Japanese.  With challenges ranging from ‘obvious’ to ’ninja’ levels, covering a wide range of topics from the cyber kill chain, there was something for everyone in the fast-paced competition and prizes for the Red Team and the Blue Team winners.  

Future ambitions for Cyber Hiroshima

Cyber is considered the 5th domain in defence terms, sitting alongside Land, Sea, Air and Space. As such, it is a critical component of defence programmes and, as the UK cyber ecosystem has demonstrated, Cyber clusters play an important role in a whole-of-society approach to cyber resilience.  It is hoped that Cyber Hiroshima will be the first of many cyber clusters across Japan in the years to come that means more partnerships.

Cyber Hiroshima members travelled to the capital, Tokyo, to deliver a showcase event at the British Ambassador's Residence at the British Embassy in Tokyo.

The delegation, joined by Cyber Wales representatives from the South Wales Cyber Security Cluster and the North Wales Cyber Security Cluster, presented to industry representatives and government officials and and discussed the growing threat of cyber crime.

During the visit members delivered demonstrations and overviews of capabilities available within the Cyber Wales ecosystem.

Discussions also included exploration of opportunities for collaboration between Wales and Japan under the new UK-Japan Hiroshima Accords.

Cyber Defense Group from Wales Opens Japan Branch in Hiroshima

Cyber Hiroshima, the Japanese branch of the Welsh cyber defense group Cyber Wales, held a kickoff seminar on Thursday at a hotel in Hiroshima City. British experts gave presentations on the current state of cyber defense and how to protect against attacks. They also introduced Cyber Hiroshima's educational tools and programs.

About 50 people from the Hiroshima Prefectural Police and cyber defense companies attended the seminar to learn about the latest cyber defense techniques.

In his opening remarks, Cyber Hiroshima co-president Yasushi Nagasaka, the president of Hiroshima Institute of Technology, noted that cyber attacks are becoming increasingly frequent. He said that Cyber Hiroshima is committed to \"raising awareness of cyber security and developing human resources, so that people can understand how to protect themselves from cyber attacks.\"

Helen Smith, the chief of mission at the British Embassy in Japan, also spoke at the event. She said that the United Kingdom and Japan share values and \"want to be the closest partners in cyber security.\"

Richard Cymru, a representative of the Welsh government, also attended the seminar. He said that he believes Cyber Wales and Cyber Hiroshima can achieve great things by working together.

In the keynote address, Cyber Wales CEO John Davies spoke about \"What is a Cyber Threat?\" He gave examples of cybercrime prevention initiatives being implemented across the UK.

Cyber Hiroshima was founded to raise awareness of cyber security and develop human resources in regional areas of Japan. The organization plans to hold educational events and develop educational content.

Clusters from the Cyber Wales ecosystem gathered in Newport to host visitors from Japan.

Izumi Wakugawa, a new member of the Political Section of the British Embassy in Tokyo, made time to come to speak with members of Cyber Wales to better understand the nature of the ecosystem and the extent of it very close ties to the cybersecurity community in Japan.  As a new member of the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in Japan Izumi was looking forward to meeting as many people as possible.

Richard Koizumi, a new member of the Welsh Government's International Trade team in Japan, also came to visit to at the same time prior to taking over as the new desk officer for Welsh Government in Tokyo.

Cluster leads from the South Wales Cyber Security Cluster, the North Wales Cyber Security Cluster, the Middle East Cluster, the Women in Cyber Wales Cluster and the Capture the Flag (CTF) Cluster all gathered to provide an overview of the Welsh Cyber ecosystem and explain some of the activities and intiatives they are working on.

Detective Superintendent Martin R Peters MA CISMP MCIIS PIP3SIO, National Police Chiefs' Council Deputy Programme Lead for National Cyber Crime, also came from London to present the UK National Cyber programmes that are being run by Welsh cyber companies.  The Cyber Essentials Scheme, the SudoCyber gamified online cyber learning platform used to teach the UK Police cyber crime teams, and the Police Cyber Alarm programme are all solutions that have been developed and are being run by Welsh companies.  DS Peters explained that the UK police are particularly keen to export the Police Cyber Alarm programme to other police forces around the world.

The 2-day visit also included visit to a cardiff-based cyber security service provider, ITSUS Consulting Ltd, who are a supplier of expert secure networ services to the Defence sector. 

The visit was also a fantastic opportunity to chat with Izumi and Richard and hear about the resurgent cyber security sector in Japan.  The G7 Summit, held in Hiroshima in May, which resulted in the UK-Japan Hiroshima Accords both had cyber challenges and initiatives on their agendas and the discussions around skills development, improving diversity and enabling a whole of society approach to cyber were in-depth and fascinating.

Massive thank you to everyone who joined us!