Active Cyber Defence: A Recent Proposal to Enhance Japan's Cyber Security Operational Capabilities and its Legal Implications in Comparison to the Canadian System

Event Description

The Government of Japan aims to enact legislation during this Diet (Congressional) session that would enable active cyber defence operations ("ACD") by the police and the Self-Defence Forces. The proposed bill would legalise the acquisition and analysis of large amounts of foreign communications data, as well as ACD falling below the threshold of the use of force. The aim of this would be to prevent cyber-attacks against the government and critical infrastructure, and to minimise damage by an immediate response.

In this colloquium, Professor Matsui will provide an overview of the Canadian cyber security framework, followed by Professor Maruhashi's overview of Japanese cyber security and the recent debate on the introduction of ACD. Finally, from a constitutional and information law perspective, Professors Matsui and Maruhashi will compare and contrast Canadian and Japanese initiatives.

This lecture is generously sponsored by the Allard Law Centre for Asian Legal Studies. 

Please contact Kris Neufeld at neufeld@allard.ubc.ca for the Zoom link. 
 

Toru Maruhashi, Visiting Professor at Allard School of Law is Professor of Law at Meiji University. He has over 30 years of in-house experience at Fujitsu and its group companies, including Nifty Corporation, a large ISP. He currently teaches Cyber Law and Information Law. His current research focuses on accountability and transparency of digital platforms and ISPs regarding civil, criminal and administrative regulations on the digital sphere. He holds an LL. B. from Kyoto University and an LL. M. from Cornell Law School.