- The Basic Act on Cybersecurity, which was promulgated and enacted in 2014, clearly provides the responsibilities of critical infrastructure operators. The Act also provides that the national government must promote voluntary efforts including formulation of standards, exercises, training, and sharing of information with regard to the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure operators, etc., and implement any other necessary measures. - In light of the above, we will ensure the stakeholders involved in critical infrastructure understand their responsibilities, and we will advance efforts toward the realization of robust critical infrastructure through a joint approach by the public and private sectors. (1) Advancing protection of critical infrastructure based on public-private collaboration - For the safe and continuous provision of critical infrastructure services, which form the foundation of people’s lives and socio-economic activities, the public and private sectors will share a common policy between the national government, which bears responsibility for critical infrastructure protection, and critical infrastructure operators, which independently carry out relevant protective measures. This will serve as the basic framework for critical infrastructure protection, and we continue to promote these initiatives. - Threats surrounding critical infrastructure are becoming increasingly advanced and sophisticated year after year. On the other hand, due to the difference in how systems are used in each field of critical infrastructure, the gap in threats faced by each organization is widening. With this understanding, we will base our efforts on the current “The Cybersecurity Policy for Critical Infrastructure Protection (4th Edition)” which serves as a reference for critical infrastructure protection, while also actively updating the policy to further enhance critical infrastructure protection based on public-private collaboration. This will enable critical infrastructure fields as a whole to flexibly respond to trends in future threats and changes in the environment surrounding systems and assets. - For the safe and continuous provision of critical infrastructure services, digital technology will play a huge role, and safeguarding cybersecurity concerns the very foundation of business management. With this understanding, we will work to ensure that critical infrastructure services will be advanced, protected by appropriate security measures, and maintain a suitable balance between business and security. To this end, we will further enhance the system of cross-sectoral information sharing to facilitate information collection by critical infrastructure operators, etc., so that each organization can make effective use of lessons learned from prior examples. We will also build a system that will enable management to fully exercise leadership since it is important for the entire organization to work as one for security measures to be effective. (2) Support for local governments - Local governments hold vast amounts of sensitive information, including personal information, and provide basic services closely related to people’s lives. In light of this fact, the national 23