Japan is developing a “trusted web” system for digital governance, aiming to improve data verification and trust online. This initiative, involving government, academia, and industry, seeks a more transparent and secure internet, avoiding over-centralisation of power by tech giants or states.

The system incorporates elements of Web3 but prioritises verifiable trust mechanisms. Pilot projects are underway in healthcare and IoT. These are focusing on secure data sharing and hardware verification. The ultimate goal is to create a safer online environment for individuals, SMEs, and corporations.

The initiative has been initiated by the Japanese government. It is leading a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a new system for digital and internet governance. A recent white paper by the country’s Cabinet Secretariat has outlined the initiative’s vision and a technical architecture. This is currently being piloted through real-world use cases. The project is also working with international collaborators. There are currently thirteen trusted web test projects underway.

The concept of the trusted web aims to increase areas where transactions between parties can be verified. This will use exiting internet technology and structures, rather than inventing new ones.

By overlaying this new trust framework on the current web, the aim is that exchanging data can be made easier and safer. The project aims to achieve this without enabling either its exploitation by tech-giants or requiring heavy handed actions from governments, which could assist surveillance-minded states.

The trusted web shares elements of Web3, the concept of a new and decentralised internet based on public blockchains, but its developers are specifically concerned with maximising mechanisms for trust as a basis for data distribution.

The trusted web is being tested in healthcare. In Japan, developers have built a platform to allow medical institutions to receive daily personal health data on personal health, principally walking. This has relied on integration of data from shoe sensors.

A further project has enabled exchange of data collected from clinical trials between research institutions.

Standards for sharing of healthcare data already exist. But ensuring authenticity of healthcare data through trusted verification is a challenge. The healthcare projects being developed under the trusted web initiative are aiming to develop new methods of data and hardware validation.

In the IoT device realm, Japan’s trusted web approach is to treat each component of networked IoT device as a potential security threat. The Japanese trusted web project has embraced the notion that software verification is not sufficient, but that each hardware component needs to be individually secured.

A challenge that the Japanese trusted web project is working on is ensuring security of systems, devices and components over supply chains that can span multiple countries. To address this, one of the trusted web project teams is prototyping a mechanism to allow checking of trustworthiness of network hardware down to individual component level.