Tomomi Inada, Chairman of the Policy Research Council of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and a Member of the Japanese House of Representatives, addressed The Boston Global Forum-G7 Summit Initiative Conference, held May 9 at the Harvard Faculty Club, in Cambridge, Mass.
In her remarks, she discussed the Asia/Pacific security environment to be discussed at the G7 Summit. She said that environment is worsening because of {in addition to North Korean threats} Chinese expansionism in the East and South China Seas and China’s rapid military buildup; its military budget, she said, is now “3.6 times’’ Japan’s.
But she said that Japan, in close collaboration with the United States, is “expanding its deterrent force’’ in the Asia/Pacific region.
She noted the importance of cybersecurity in Japan’s “national risk assessment’’ as “the threat of cyberattacks is increasing around the world.’’
“We need the rule of law in cyberbehavior,’’ Ms. Inada emphasized. We note that she is seen as a possible first woman prime minister of Japan.
At the conference, Gov. Michael Dukakis, its moderator and the BGF’s chairman and a co-founder, presented to Tsutomo Himeno, the Japanese consul general for New England, the documents containing the final recommendations of the BGF-G7 Summit Initiative Committee, which mostly involved cybersecurity, the BGF’s focus this year. Mr. Himeno has forwarded them to the summit planners.