Japan has declared a state of cybersecurity emergency, following a series of attacks on its businesses in recent weeks. Some experts are already pointing the finger at AI.
More than 20 major companies, including convenience store chain Lawson and car rental operator Times Car, have reported attacks, according to The Financial Timesleading to the loss of tens of millions of customer data. This included 1.67 million customer email addresses from the reservation system of JR East, the country’s largest train operator.
Japan’s Cybersecurity Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said the situation was “extremely critical” during a meeting at the National Cybersecurity Strategy headquarters. Meanwhile, Masaaki Taira, head of the NCSH, called the situation a “cyberspace emergency.”
Masaki Hiraoka, managing director for Northeast Asia at cybersecurity group Blackpanda, told the FT that while the recent wave of attacks has not been explicitly linked to the use of AI, the technology allows hackers to carry out attacks that once required lengthy preliminary investigations.
“Smaller services that weren’t worth the effort could become viable targets,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nobuo Miwa, president of Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm S&J Corp, compared the recent attacks to “carpet attacks” in a statement to Reuters. Miwa also argued that AI tools could allow foreign hackers to overcome language barriers that might previously have made it more difficult to attack Japanese companies.
Japan recorded more cybersecurity incidents in the first nine months of 2026 than in all of last year, according to TrendAI data shared with Reuters.
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Regulators are calling on companies to strengthen their integration in the face of stolen data. The Financial Services Agency has reportedly called on lenders to only accept forms of identification containing identification chips, such as passports or Japan’s MyNumber national ID cards, in response to the number of driver’s license images leaked following an attack on Times Car, the country’s largest car rental agency.
We have already seen cyberattacks impact the real-world operations of some of Japan’s largest companies. In October 2025, an attack on Asahi Group Holdings caused the closure of most of the company’s 30 domestic factories, leading to shortages of the popular Asahi Super Dry beer.
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