Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will ask for ¥13.7B in its fiscal 2027 budget to defend hospitals, which have faced a surging number of cyberattacks, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun. The funding request rides inside the investment framework championed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet.
The problems start with device sprawl. Hospital networks are stitched together from equipment supplied by many IT vendors, and each piece tends to add its own pipe to the internet, leaving defenders with a wide perimeter that is difficult to watch.
Under the plan, the ministry subsidizes hospitals that trim that perimeter by consolidating their external connection points. Fewer links mean traffic is easier to monitor and clinical systems can be disconnected from the outside world quickly when an attack begins. Facilities will contract the work out to private vendors, and subsidy ceilings will scale with the number of beds.
The move mirrors pressure on hospitals in the United States and Europe to segment and simplify clinical networks after disruptive ransomware incidents at major systems and their suppliers. Security teams can borrow the checklist now: count every vendor, map every outside link, and shrink the attack surface before a regulator or an intruder forces the issue.
