Connecting Hiroshima and Wales — Cyber Hiroshima as the Japanese Branch of Cyber Wales
Hiroshima and Wales in the United Kingdom may appear to be two distant places. Why, then, are they connected through cybersecurity? Cyber Hiroshima was established against the background of a long-standing relationship with Cyber Wales and is described by the Welsh Government as “the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales”. This article explains how that relationship developed and what it is intended to achieve.
What is Cyber Wales?
Cyber Wales is a cybersecurity ecosystem centred in Wales, United Kingdom.
It connects not only companies, but also:
- cybersecurity companies
- universities and educational institutions
- researchers
- public-sector organisations
- security professionals
- students
- individuals with an interest in cybersecurity
and has developed as a Community in which knowledge, people, technology and business opportunities can be shared.
According to the Cyber Wales website, the ecosystem now includes more than 2,700 members and over 900 organisations, with more than 50 meetings held each year.
One of the defining characteristics of Cyber Wales is that it does not operate everything through one large central organisation. Instead, it forms multiple Clusters around different regions and specialist areas.
Alongside regional Clusters such as South Wales and North Wales, Communities also operate around specific themes, including Education & Training, Operational Technology, Data Privacy & Ethics and AI.
Cyber Hiroshima in Japan is positioned within this network.
Cyber Hiroshima is the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales
This is one of the most important points in understanding the relationship between Cyber Hiroshima and Cyber Wales.
Cyber Hiroshima is not simply an external organisation that happens to engage with Cyber Wales.
The Welsh Government’s International Relations Annual Report 2023–2024 describes the establishment of Cyber Hiroshima as:
“Cyber Hiroshima (the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales)”
In other words, the Welsh Government also positions Cyber Hiroshima as the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales.
On Cyber Wales’s own Team page, Cyber Hiroshima is listed as one of its Geographic Clusters, with a “Cyber Hiroshima Cluster Manager”.
This shows that Cyber Hiroshima is not simply an overseas contact point, but a Cluster working to connect Cyber Wales’s international Cyber Security Ecosystem with Japan.
Why Hiroshima and Wales?
The relationship between Cyber Hiroshima and Cyber Wales did not suddenly begin in 2023.
Cyber Wales’s own history records its participation in the Japan Cyber Summit in 2019 and future cooperation with a Japanese Cyber Cluster.
As these exchanges developed, areas in which both sides could work together became clearer, including:
- cybersecurity education
- skills development
- Cyber Range
- CTF
- business collaboration
- international exchange
In 2023, the Hiroshima Accord, which strengthened relations between Japan and the United Kingdom, was also announced, with cybersecurity identified as one of the important areas of UK–Japan cooperation.
Within this broader context, the Welsh Government described the launch of Cyber Hiroshima as one of the milestones in the development of technology relations between Wales and Japan.
Cyber Hiroshima is therefore not simply an organisation that “introduces Welsh activities to Japan”.
Its broader purpose is:
to build an ongoing Cyber Security bridge between Hiroshima and Wales.
Connecting both ways, not just one
Cyber Hiroshima is not aiming for a one-way flow of information:
Wales → Japan
What we are working towards is a two-way network:
Hiroshima / Japan ↔ Wales
For example, educational programmes and cybersecurity technologies developed in Wales can be introduced to Japan.
At the same time, Japanese companies, educational institutions, researchers and students can be connected with the Cyber Wales Community.
Japanese companies can meet technology companies in Wales.
Welsh companies can develop a deeper understanding of the Japanese market.
Students can take part in the same Cyber Challenge.
Researchers and specialists can exchange knowledge.
The role of a Cluster is to continue creating more of these points of contact.
By connecting the Cyber Wales ecosystem with Communities in Japan, opportunities can be created that would be difficult for any single organisation to build alone.
SudoCyber and SudoRange — turning connection into practice
One example of the relationship with Wales leading to a practical learning environment is our cooperation with SudoCyber.
SudoCyber is a Wales-based Cyber Security company that provides the cloud-based Cyber Range, SudoRange.
Cyber Hiroshima is working to combine Knowledge through CyBOK with Practice through SudoRange, creating a Learning Loop of:
Learn → Try → Review → Learn Again
This is an important example of how the relationship with Wales goes beyond “international exchange”.
A connection with an overseas Community can lead to a Learning Environment that learners in Japan can actually use.
Cyber Hiroshima places importance on turning Connection into concrete Value in this way.
A Cyber Challenge connecting Hiroshima and Wales
Another practical example is Cyber Challenge.
In February 2024, during a CyberFirst-related event, Cyber Hiroshima operated a CTF at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo.
At the same time, SudoCyber, a Cyber Wales member company, operated the CTF Lab from Brecon in Wales and provided an English- and Japanese-language exercise environment through SudoRange.
The participants were in Tokyo.
The team supporting the exercise environment was in Wales.
Even so, they were able to deliver one Cyber Challenge together.
This was an example of using online technology, but it also demonstrated that:
the Communities in Hiroshima / Japan and Wales can create real activities together.
The objective is not to eliminate distance.
It is to create an environment in which people can collaborate despite that distance.
What a Cyber Security Cluster can create
Cyber Wales describes a Cyber Security Cluster not simply as a networking group, but as a Network intended to support:
- the sharing of information and Best Practice
- Collaboration
- the creation of Partnership Opportunities
- improved Cyber Security Knowledge and Skills
- stronger Cyber Resilience for companies and organisations
Cyber Hiroshima is working to develop this approach in Japan.
Its audience is not limited to cybersecurity companies.
Companies have real operational challenges.
Educational institutions have a role in developing people.
Researchers have specialist knowledge.
Students have future potential.
Individual learners need an entry point into a new field.
New opportunities emerge when these groups connect rather than acting in isolation.
The value of a Cluster lies not in the organisation itself, but in:
what can be created through those connections.
What we aim to achieve as the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales
Cyber Hiroshima is not trying to copy a completed Cyber Wales model directly into Japan.
Instead, we aim to learn from the ideas developed over many years in Wales:
Community
Collaboration
Education
Innovation
and use them to build a Cyber Security Ecosystem suited to the Japanese environment.
At the same time, the intention is not to operate only within Japan. By making use of the relationship with Cyber Wales, Cyber Hiroshima can participate as part of an international Community.
In a 2024 article, Cyber Wales expressed its hope that Cyber Hiroshima would help lead to the creation of similar Cyber Clusters elsewhere in Japan and to further Partnerships.
For Cyber Hiroshima too, the final objective is not simply to exist as one Cluster.
Starting in Hiroshima, we aim to connect companies, regions, educational institutions, professionals and students across Japan, and then connect them further with Cyber Communities overseas, including Wales.
We aim to become a Gateway for that connection.
From Hiroshima to Wales, from Wales to Hiroshima
Cybersecurity has no borders.
Threats, technologies and knowledge do not remain within one region.
People and Communities therefore also need to connect across borders.
As the Japanese branch of Cyber Wales, Cyber Hiroshima aims to create a two-way flow:
Knowledge, People and Technology from Wales to Japan.
Knowledge, People and Opportunity from Japan to Wales.
What matters is not simply the fact that we are “internationally connected”.
What can we learn through that connection?
Who can we meet?
What can we create together?
The new Learning, Collaboration and Innovation that emerge from those connections are what give meaning to the relationship between Cyber Hiroshima and Cyber Wales.
5. Read Next
Connect with Wales
An introduction to the relationship between Cyber Wales, SudoCyber and Cyber Hiroshima, and to the international Cyber Community open to companies, educational institutions, researchers, students and individuals.
Turning Knowledge into Practice — What Can You Learn with a Cyber Range and SudoRange?
An introduction to the practical Learning Environment that has emerged through the Wales network and to ways of connecting Knowledge with Practice.
What Can You Learn from CTF? — Making Cyber Challenge More Than a Competition
An introduction to Cyber Challenge connecting Hiroshima and Wales, and to the idea of connecting CTF with continuous learning.