Japan unveils emergency cyber package with AI, rescue teams

As of 8:09 p.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

Japan's government has adopted an emergency cybersecurity package that leans on artificial intelligence and new rapid-response teams, after a run of data breaches at major companies, and set aside about ¥10 billion in reserve funds to start it.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the Cabinet approved the roughly ¥10 billion in reserve spending for immediate needs on Friday morning, Nov. 6, according to her office. A ministerial meeting on cybersecurity adopted the package the same day. Takaichi told finance and other ministers to keep working on funding for the package as a whole.

"At this very moment, unauthorized access and information leaks keep occurring, with major effects on people's lives and corporate activity," Takaichi said, according to her office's transcript.

What is in the package

The package rests on four pillars, Takaichi said: basic defenses that also use AI; better intelligence gathering and investigation; strategic responses to attacks; and more support for victims to limit damage.

A government team of leading cybersecurity specialists, likened to an elite "Top Gun" unit, is to be formed this month and will use AI to counter hackers and find weaknesses in network systems, Lianhe Zaobao reported. Jiji Press reported the team would be deployed in November to simulate attacks, according to The Straits Times.

The government also plans a "cyber rescue team" of government and private-sector experts, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Jiji Press and other Japanese media reported, according to The Straits Times. Those reports said a secretariat would be set up within the current fiscal year, which ends in March, to coordinate sending the team when support needs are particularly acute.

Takaichi also told Toshiharu Furukawa, the minister in charge of cybersecurity, to consider amending the Cyber Response Capabilities Strengthening Act and to aim for operators of critical infrastructure to report attacks within hours, or at least the same day.

Wave of breaches

Several prominent Japanese companies were hacked in October, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported. It said about 6.6 million personal records leaked from parking operator Times Group, and that GMO Internet Group confirmed on Oct. 24 that hackers had demanded a $1 million ransom.