Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel confirmed Thursday in Tokyo their cooperation in fighting cyberattacks and handling tensions over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
During their talks at the Defense Ministry, Onodera and Hagel also welcomed an agreement signed by officials earlier in the day to create a bilateral framework to discuss cybersecurity measures to counter attacks on government agencies and other organizations, often blamed on China and North Korea.
Japan and the U.S. will cooperate in training personnel capable of countering such new borderless threats, while reaffirming they stand side by side over the Japanese-administered islets at the heart of heightened tensions with China, a Japanese official said.