Japan's Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Takeaki Matsumoto said Friday that the government's administrative guidance to Line Yahoo Corp.(LY) earlier this year was not aimed at forcing it to reconsider its capital ties with South Korea's Naver.

Instead, the minister emphasized that the guidance was a request to review the security governance for user protection, due to a massive data leak last year.

The remark comes as LY on Monday submitted a report to the Ministry for Internal Affairs and Communications containing a roadmap for preventive measures and progress in response to the administrative guidance.

After a review, Matsumoto gave a positive assessment of the report, stating it contained plans to improve safety management, including separation between Naver Cloud and its employee system and authentication base, and added that the ministry will monitor their implementation.

Last month, LY, the operator of the Line messenger application, announced it would complete its systems separation from Naver by March 2026, nine months earlier than originally planned.