The Japanese government is requesting that major US AI companies expand the provision of advanced AI models to strengthen cyber defense. Talks with OpenAI and Anthropic are progressing, and reports indicate that the government is considering applying the models to critical infrastructure.
The Japanese government is requesting that leading US AI companies expand the provision of advanced models specialized in cybersecurity, with the aim of fundamentally overhauling the country’s cyber defense posture. It seeks to introduce capabilities that can identify weaknesses at companies responsible for critical information systems and core infrastructure at an early stage, in response to attack methods that are becoming automated and increasingly fast.
After the start of 2026, cyberattacks exploiting AI reportedly evolved into destructive threats in real-world environments. A system has been identified in which autonomous AI agents are deployed in a distributed manner to automate the process from reconnaissance and vulnerability discovery through to the execution of attack code, while ransomware incidents reported by the National Police Agency have reportedly remained at a high level in Japan.
The government is requesting that OpenAI and Anthropic apply advanced models to operators of core infrastructure and cooperate on analysis. Minister for Digital Affairs Furukawa Toshiharu (古川俊治) held direct talks with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark (ジャック・クラーク), discussing policies for providing the models to government agencies and certain companies. OpenAI has indicated a policy of providing GPT-5.5-Cyber to Japanese institutions and companies.
This is expected to enable preliminary inspections that identify potential system defects within minutes across 15 critical infrastructure sectors, including finance, energy and telecommunications. The government plans to formally include stronger collaboration with US AI developers in its future cyber defense package, and domestic data management challenges and international political barriers are expected to be the focus going forward.