Solution Brief
SafeBreach Exposure Validation Platform
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Japan is the latest country to shift from a reactive to a proactive cybersecurity stance, with its landmark Active Cyber Defense Law. The new regulations passed in May 2025 and are set to take full effect by 2027. For cybersecurity leaders, particularly those in critical infrastructure and the enterprise sector, this legislation marks a turning point—and carries major implications about how we test, validate, and evolve our cyber defenses.
A Strategic Shift in Cybersecurity Posture
The law represents a significant departure from Japan’s historically pacifist security policies. By enabling preemptive offensive cyber operations, it redefines national cyber defense as an active, anticipatory domain. Japan’s government agencies, such as the National Police Agency (NPA) and Self-Defense Forces (SDF), will now have the authority to neutralize hostile cyber infrastructure abroad—even before an attack hits home.
This bold move is a direct response to increasing threats from advanced adversaries, including state-aligned actors from China, Russia, and North Korea, who have repeatedly targeted Japan’s public and private sectors.
Key Provisions of the Active Cyber Defense Law
Offensive Cyber Operations
Japan’s SDF and law enforcement agencies are authorized to preemptively disrupt or disable hostile cyber infrastructure, including infiltrating foreign servers before an attack occurs.
Internet Traffic Monitoring
The government is permitted to collect and analyze metadata—such as IP addresses and timestamps—of international communications entering or transiting through Japan, while excluding the content of communications to protect privacy.
Mandatory Breach Reporting
Operators of critical infrastructure (e.g., energy, telecom, finance) are required to report cyber incidents to authorities, with penalties for non-compliance.
Cyber Harm Prevention Officers
The law introduces specialized officers within law enforcement tasked with proactively disrupting cyber threats, including disabling malicious servers during ongoing attacks.
Joint Operations
The legislation promotes close collaboration between police and military cyber units, facilitating joint operations to enhance national cyber defense capabilities.
Public-Private Cooperation
The law encourages information sharing and joint cyber defense exercises between government agencies and private sector entities to bolster infrastructure defense.
Why This Matters for Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV)
This legislative evolution mirrors a broader, global trend: cyber resilience is becoming a mandate, not just best practice.
We’ve already seen this with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which took effect in January 2025, and Hong Kong’s new Protection of Critical Infrastructure Ordinance, which takes effect in January 2026. Japan’s move in the APAC region now adds even more weight to the shift toward proactive validation, live testing, and public-private alignment.
Implication #1: Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) Is No Longer a Nice-to-Have—It’s Essential
With Japan taking a preemptive defense stance, organizations must ensure their systems are hardened against complex threats before an attack occurs.
Breach and attack simulation (BAS) capabilities, like those provided within the SafeBreach exposure validation platform, offer continuous, automated validation of security controls using real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) modeled after those used by nation-state actors. This level of testing is vital for critical infrastructure operators now legally required to report and defend against attacks.
In parallel, red teaming becomes even more valuable. Full-scope attack simulations reveal detection blind spots, validate incident response workflows, and build organizational muscle memory for high-impact events.
Implication #2: “Know Your Adversary” Takes Center Stage
The law’s provisions for traffic metadata analysis—paired with greater threat intel sharing from government agencies—will enable Japanese organizations to build even more targeted BAS and red team scenarios.
By using real intelligence about adversaries’ infrastructure, geography, and tactics, simulation tools can evolve from theoretical “pen tests” to exercises that mirror actual threat actor behavior.
Implication #3: Continuous Testing Aligns with Legal Reporting Obligations
With mandatory breach reporting in place, organizations need to validate their security controls constantly, not just after incidents. BAS supports this by offering automated, continuous testing that detects gaps in detection and response—before adversaries can exploit them.
And in a regulatory context, this approach also helps prove compliance, readiness, and resilience—metrics that matter both to boards and to regulators.
The Real World Isn’t a Lab—So Why Test Like It Is?
As cyber legislation evolves globally, one principle is becoming clear:
“There’s no point in hacking yourself if you’re only hacking a lab. That’s like crash-testing a toy car and expecting real passengers to be safe.”
Testing in isolated environments misses the point. The systems under attack in the real world are live, complex, and dynamic. Organizations must shift toward testing in production — under real conditions, with real stakes.
A New Era of Cyber Resilience in APAC and Beyond
Japan’s Active Cyber Defense Law joins a growing group of forward-leaning cybersecurity regulations around the world. Together with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and Hong Kong’s new Protection of Critical Infrastructure Ordinance, we’re witnessing the global codification of cyber resilience principles:
- Continuous security validation
- Realistic adversary emulation
- Mandatory breach visibility
- Public-private defense integration
For cybersecurity teams, the message is clear: resilience requires readiness. And readiness requires validation.
Real-World Readiness: A Financial Sector Example
A top-tier Japanese bank facing dual pressure from DORA and Japan’s new Active Cyber Defense Law must demonstrate both control effectiveness and breach readiness.
SafeBreach’s continuous validation platform enables this institution to:
- Simulate nation-state adversary behaviors
- Test controls in live environments
- Produce clear, auditable reports for compliance teams and regulators
In today’s threat landscape, proving resilience isn’t optional—it’s operational. SafeBreach makes it achievable.
Ready to proactively validate your defenses in line with Japan’s Active Cyber Defense Law?
Explore how SafeBreach’s exposure validation platform empowers critical infrastructure and enterprise teams to test like real attackers—and prove they’re ready. See the platform platform solution brief, then schedule a personalized demo to see the platform in action.
