Japan Joins NATO’s CCDCOE

Japan’s Ministry of Defence announced that it has formally joined NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE).

The CCDCOE is recognized as an international military organization and cyber defence hub focusing on research, training and exercises, like its yearly red team versus blue team cyber war game, Locked Shields.

Japan’s decision to join CCDCOE was originally announced in January 2018 by the late prime minister Shinzō Abe.

Japan is also reportedly cozying up to the US for a next-generation semiconductor research collaboration, and bringing $2.4 billion with it. The two countries will seek to develop 2-nanometer manufacturing processes. Participating companies in each country are not yet announced.

The US was said to be working on an agreement for companies in the Netherlands and Japan to restrict sales of semiconductor equipment to China.

The Netherlands is the home to ASML, one of the largest suppliers of lithography systems for chip manufacturing in the world, while Canon in Japan is just one of the companies there building similar equipment.