Photo/Illutration Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada enters the prime minister’s office on Aug. 8. (Koichi Ueda)

No leaks of confidential security information have been confirmed, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Aug. 8, after the Washington Post reported that Chinese military hackers had infiltrated Japan’s defense networks in a devastating cyberattack.

“Japan and the United States have been closely communicating with each other at various levels,” Hamada told a news conference. “I refrain from discussing details given the nature of the issue, but no leaks of confidential information held by the Defense Ministry have been confirmed.”

Hamada said Japan’s capabilities to deal with cyberattacks would be revealed if he explained the attacks that the nation has suffered and the responses it has taken.

According to the Washington Post, the U.S. National Security Agency discovered in autumn 2020 that hackers from the People’s Liberation Army had breached Japan’s classified defense networks.

It said the hackers accessed information about Japan’s defense plans, capabilities and assessments of shortcomings of the Self-Defense Forces.

Senior U.S. administration officials visited Tokyo to brief the defense minister at the time about the attack.

The newspaper article said the defense minister arranged for U.S. officials to “alert” the prime minister.

Japanese officials were reportedly told that it was one of the most damaging hacks in Japan’s modern history.

The newspaper did not say which Japanese administration received the report. Shinzo Abe stepped down as prime minister in September 2020 and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga.

The article, which quotes former senior U.S. officials and other sources, said China continued its cyberattacks against Japanese networks even after the Joe Biden administration started in January 2021.

“In fall 2021, Washington uncovered fresh information that reinforced the severity of China’s breach of Tokyo’s defense systems and that Japan was not making much progress in sealing it,” the report said.

It said the United States is concerned that Japanese networks are still not sufficiently secure, which “could impede greater intelligence-sharing” between the Pentagon and the Defense Ministry.

“U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has indicated to Tokyo that enhanced data-sharing to enable advanced military operations could be slowed if Japan’s networks are not better secured,” the report said.

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