Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA:I have one thing to report on first. It is regarding the Government's response in preparation for Typhoon No. 15.

Due to the impact of Typhoon No. 15 and the autumn rain front being stalled over the coast of Honshu, various areas are receiving large amounts of rain, which has made river blockages (so-called landslide dams) on the Kii Peninsula reach their full capacity, while in Aichi Prefecture the Shonai and other rivers have risen to dangerous water levels, resulting in the issuance of evacuation warnings.

In response, today at 3:30pm the Prime Minister ordered that the Information Liaison Office Concerning Heavy Rainfall caused by Typhoon No. 12, which was established on September 3, be organizationally changed to the Information Liaison Office Concerning Heavy Rainfall caused by Typhoon No. 12 and No. 15, and the Government is currently working to gather and consolidate information.

Furthermore, prior to this, at 11:30am this morning, a liaison meeting was held between related ministries and agencies, where information was shared in light of the heavy rains caused by Typhoon No. 15 and the related ministries and agencies confirmed their will to exert every effort to ensuring the safety of citizens. As I mentioned this morning, we are continuing to closely monitor the landslide dams in Wakayama and Nara Prefectures, which emerged as a result of Typhoon No. 12.

As heavy rains are forecasted due to Typhoon No. 15 as well, I would like to again ask that citizens pay careful attention to weather information concerning the rains and, if an evacuation order or warning is issued, that citizens work to swiftly evacuate to a safe location.

(Abridged)

Q&As

REPORTER:On a related note, in this morning's press conference you mentioned that the Cabinet Secretariat would be gathering information including about cyber attacks on private sector corporations. If you have implemented any concrete response since then, please share that with us.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA:It is being reported that certain government agencies were among the targets for such attacks, so, in order to improve the level of information security standards provided by the information security countermeasures of the government agencies in question, the decision was made by the Information Security Policy Council to draft a uniform set standards (applied individual manuals) for the information security countermeasures of Governmental bodies. We have always implemented the necessary measures, and we will continue to work to expand and strengthen the information security countermeasures of the overall Government while using the recent incidents as reference. This of course will apply to all ministries and related private sector corporations as well.