AKIPRESS.COM - Japan and Italy have agreed to sign an Information Security Agreement (ISA) to allow the exchange of military intelligence and information on terrorists.

Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera reached the accord with his Italian counterpart Roberta Pinotti at a meeting in Rome last week.

The agreement came as Japan plans to dispatch defence attachés to seven African countries, including Algeria and Morocco, during fiscal year 2014 to improve its understanding of terrorist activity in northern Africa.

The Japanese government struggled to gather information during the January 2013 In Amenas hostage crisis in Algeria that resulted in the deaths of dozens of foreign nationals, including 10 Japanese.