Japanese government is the latest to ban Huawei network equipment

Japan follows the U.S., Australia and New Zealand in banning Huawei network equipment.

The hits just keep on coming for Huawei: earlier this week, BT announced that it would be removing Huawei equipment from "key areas" of its 4G network. A week before that, New Zealand blocked the sale of Huawei equipment to regional carrier Spark, saying it identified a "significant network security risk." New Zealand also said it will not use Huawei equipment for its 5G network, a statement echoed by Australia.

It now looks like the Japanese government is also set to halt government purchases of equipment from Huawei and ZTE. Citing unnamed sources, Reuters says the decision was motivated by a need to beef up the country's defences against "intelligence leaks and cyber attacks."

The Japanese government is expected to formally introduce the new policy on Monday, with chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga stating that cybersecurity is a key issue for the country:

Cybersecurity is becoming an important issue in Japan. We'll take firm measures looking at it from a variety of perspectives.

Huawei, meanwhile, has maintained that it has no ties to the Chinese government, and that it doesn't use its network infrastructure to spy on other countries. However, that has done little to persuade governments around the world from banning its equipment.