The Japanese government has been beefing up open data measures, such as beginning full-fledged operations of the government's data catalog site, data. go.jp, in October 2014. MIC, for its part, is taking a three-pronged approach: (1) open data demonstration experiments; (2) collaborating with the Vitalizing Local Economy Organization by Open Data & Big Data; and (3) conversion of MIC-owned data to open data.

## (2) Conversion of MIC-owned data to open data

MIC released the Information and Communications

### 4. Promoting cyber security policy

## (1) Examinations of plans for cyber security policy

in Japan White Paper/Information and Communications Statistics databases as open data in April 2013 as a test case of converting information held by administration bodies to open data. And MIC's Statistics Bureau, a core government statistics organization, in partnership with the National Statistics Center, is updating its provision methods of enormous and diverse statistical data records for the next generation, making efforts to enable sophisticated data usage, and spearheading government initiatives promoting open data.

MIC set up the Information Security Advisory Board, composed of security experts, in February 2013 to effectively address cyber security issues in the interest of ensuring safe and secure ICT networks. Based on the Act on Basic Cyber Security, established in November 2014, the Board examined issues MIC and other agencies should tackle. The Board, in May 2015, issued Recommendations on the Advancement of Cyber Security Policy, which called for the education of pragmatic security personnel through bolstering information-sharing frameworks and implementing exercises in view of the coming full-fledged IoT society.

## (2) Strengthening cyber security policy

New cyber threats, such as attacks targeting specific government administration offices or large enterprises, are quickly growing in sophistication and complexity. The damages and losses from these attacks, such as disclosures of confidential information, have mushroomed.

Since FY 2013, MIC has run CYDER (the CYber Defense Exercise with Recurrence), a hands-on cyber defense exercise that uses a large computer environment to simulate networks in an organization with thousands of employees. CYDER's purpose is to improve the cyber attack response skills of LAN administrators at government administration offices and large enterprises.

With the dissemination of ICT into all areas of citizen's social and economic activities, attacks targeting these cyber spaces have become a huge public threat. To address the current state of affairs where it is difficult for users to detect and correct malware infections on their own, MIC, in partnership with the Telecom Information Sharing and Analysis Center Japan (TelecomISAC Japan), which is composed of Internet service providers (ISPs), and security vendors, has been involved with ACTIVE (the Advanced Cyber Threats response InitiatiVE) since FY 2013. ACTIVE is a joint public-private project that prevents and eradicates Internet users' malware infections.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are predicted to multiple rapidly in the coming years, due to the IoT society, in which all kinds of devices are connected to networks, becoming mainstream. Consequently, ensuring the security of M2M communications is a pressing issue. MIC, in response, has been developing and testing cyber security technologies that ensure the security of M2M communications since FY 2015.

At the same time, since cyber space is global in nature, cooperation with other countries is essential to establish meaningful cyber security. MIC is advancing ties with a number of countries based on specific research projects. One of these projects is PRACTICE (the Proactive Response Against Cyber-attacks Through International Collaborative Exchange), a research project into technologies that provide early detection of signs of a cyber attack and initiate responses. The project is an international collaboration, involving Western countries and ASEAN nations.

### 5. Establishing barrier-free information environments

MIC is moving forward with several initiatives that aim to establish barrier-free information environments so that everyone, including older people and people with physical and mental challenges, can make use of ICT and enjoy its benefits. Some of the initiatives include promoting ICT use and application by people with challenges, encouraging more broadcasts for visually and aurally challenged people, and advocating for universal usage environments.

### 6. ICT contributions to resolving global environmental problems

In the areas of Green of ICT and Green by ICT, MIC is surveying and analyzing the latest technological developments worldwide, establishing best-practice models for $ CO_{2} $ emissions reductions and methods of evaluating the effects of emissions reductions, and pushing for international standardization on ICT and climate change.

In May 2013, proposals submitted by Japan were incorporated in the deliverables of working groups belonging to the ITU-T's Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC). Japan will continue to press for