Early Action to Address the “Sovereignty Gap”

This policy proposal, titled "Early Action to Address the 'Sovereignty Gap'," outlines the urgent need for Japan to establish its own framework for digital sovereignty. The document identifies a critical "sovereignty gap" where Japan lacks a method to measure and verify the sovereignty of its digital infrastructure, particularly cloud services. This is in sharp contrast to the European Union, which has already implemented quantitative assessment systems like SEAL and is advancing its legislative agenda with the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).
The report highlights Japan's significant dependence on a single overseas cloud provider for its government infrastructure and a persistent, multi-trillion yen deficit in its digital-related balance of payments. To address this vulnerability and create a more resilient and competitive digital environment, KDDI Research puts forward five key recommendations. These include the collaborative development of a Japanese sovereignty assessment framework, standardizing information disclosure for cloud services, ensuring the ability for users to switch providers, mapping cloud dependencies in critical sectors starting with healthcare, and securing international interoperability for sovereignty assessments as a practical implementation of the Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) principle. The proposal is grounded in principles of fair assessment, phased implementation, international alignment, and a clear division of Slideroles between the public and private sectors, aiming to enhance verifiability and choice in the digital market without excluding any specific providers.