Japan plans to ban the government's purchase of equipment from Huawei Technologies and China's ZTE to strengthen its defenses against leakage of information and cyber attacks, sources said. China's technology companies are heavily scrutinized by Washington and some key allies for its links with the Chinese government, fueled by concerns that Beijing may exploit them for espionage.
The government ban comes in Japan after Huawei was already banned from working in the US market, after Australia and New Zealand halted the establishment of the company's fifth-generation mobile networks. Huawei reiterated that Beijing has no influence over it.
The daily Yomiuri said the government was expected to amend its internal procurement rules on Monday.
A source familiar with the matter directly, and another source briefed on the issue, that the government does not plan to mention the name of «Huawei», and «ZTE» in particular in the review, but will develop standards aimed at strengthening security, and applied to the two companies.
Japanese government spokesman Yoshihidi Soja declined to comment. But he noted that Japan is in close contact with the United States, on a wide range of areas, including electronic security.
"Electronic security is an important issue in Japan, and we will take strict measures to be considered from different points of view," he said at a regular press conference. ZTE declined to comment. Huawei has not commented on the matter so far.
Huawei supplies some network equipment to two private Japanese companies, DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. Softbank also has a long term relationship with Huawei, and has participated in the pilot operations of the fifth generation mobile technology.
"The government will not buy, where there are security concerns, but it is difficult to restrict the purchases of private companies," one source said. DoCoMo and Softbank have so far not responded to the request.
"While we are closely monitoring the changes, we will consider the appropriate steps," a spokeswoman for KDDI said.