Countries & Regions

May 10, 2013
The Governments of Japan and the United States held the first Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue in Tokyo on May 9-10, 2013.

The Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue, initiated at the Presidential-Prime Ministerial level, reflects our nations' broad engagement and long-standing cooperation on important bilateral and global issues. The Cyber Dialogue is a consultation for exchanging cyber threat information, aligning international cyber policies, comparing national cyber strategies, cooperating on planning and efforts to protect critical infrastructure, and discussing the cooperation on cyber areas in national defense and security policy.

The Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue deepened bilateral cooperation on a wide range of cyber issues and strengthened the Japan-U.S. Alliance by:

  • Exchanging information on cyber issues of mutual concern and discussing possible cooperative measures.
  • Affirming common objectives in international cyber fora, especially the application of norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.
  • Supporting the development of practical confidence-building measures and the implementation of national whole-of-government cyber strategies in an effort to reduce risk in cyberspace.
  • Confirming support for the preservation of openness and interoperability enhanced by the multi-stakeholder system of Internet governance.
  • Coordinating cooperation on cyber capacity-building efforts in third countries.
  • Identifying actions governments and private sector entities can take to secure critical infrastructure.
  • Addressing the increasing role of cyber defense in national defense and security strategies and discussing new areas of bilateral cyber defense cooperation.


The Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue was hosted by Japan’s Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy Osamu Imai and included a wide range of senior officials from the Government of Japan, including from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Cabinet Secretariat (National Security Affairs and Crisis Management); the National Information Security Center; Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office; the National Police Agency; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Defense; and from the METI-affiliated Information-technology Promotion Agency. The U.S. Secretary of State’s Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Christopher Painter, led the U.S. government interagency delegation, which included representatives from the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense.

Ambassador Imai and Coordinator Painter decided to hold the second Japan-U.S. Cyber Dialogue in Washington during the fourth quarter of 2013.

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