Japan will launch DARPA-esque research institute for cyberwarfare
Japanese officials on Monday announced the opening of a new government-run defense research institute this fall, as reported by the Kyodo News agency.
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Japanese officials on Monday announced the opening of a new government-run defense research institute this fall, as reported by the Kyodo News agency.
The agency, which will be tasked with developing innovative cyber war technologies, said the new project is directly modeled after DARPA, the US Defense Department’s research agency – responsible for some of the world’s most cutting-edge defense technologies.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) said the Tokyo-based facility will officially launch in October with about 100 personnel – with about half coming from the private sector – using “novel approaches and methods” taken from DARPA initiatives.
“The international community is facing the greatest post-war trial yet and has entered a new era of crisis," the Ministry has said, citing its latest 2022 National Defense Strategy plan.
DARPA, short for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, conducts highly classified research to develop emerging technologies for potential use by the US military. It is responsible for some of the most transformational technologies used today, including the Internet, the personal computer, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), weather satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
Japan’s new Defense Innovation Technology Institute (its provisional name) will operate under the government’s national security agency, the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA).
Its creation is part of Japan’s massive five-year defense buildup plan to improve the nation’s defense infrastructure capabilities and is further detailed in the Ministry’s FY2024 budget overview, released in June.
Future project examples listed in the overview include “developing unmanned vehicles that can autonomously navigate in darkness and a new method for detecting submarines,” the Kyodo News said. Other research projects include electromagnetic warfare, information gathering using satellites, and communication interference technology, according to MOD.
"Where military use of cutting-edge civilian technologies is changing the modes of warfare, it is necessary to fundamentally reinforce defense capabilities at an epoch-making speed,” MOD stated in the report.
The fiscal overview also stressed the need for MOD to be flexible and open to “incorporating advanced civilian technologies,” including from the private sector and off-the-shelf products.
The staff of outside researchers and engineers – covering specialties such as AI, robotics, and elementary particles – will be hand-picked from universities and private corporations in an effort to promote collaboration and increase the speed of real-world deployment of the new technologies.
Officials said the goal would be to deploy fresh technologies within a three year time frame.
Besides a “Breakthrough Research” program, the Defense Ministry said the agency will operate as a think tank to monitor global research trends in bleeding-edge technologies and regularly collaborate with its allies, including the US, Australia, and Britain.
The institute also plans to manage subsidy programs for studies of dual-use technologies in the private sector that can be applied in both defense and civilian arenas, the Kyodo News reports.