Japan declares cybersecurity emergency after attacks on more than 20 major firms
Japan has declared a cybersecurity emergency after attacks on more than 20 major companies, including convenience store chain Lawson and car rental operator Times Car, with tens of millions of customer records lost. The Financial Times reports the losses include 1.67 million customer email addresses from the booking system of JR East, the country's largest rail operator. Cybersecurity minister Toshiharu Furukawa called the situation "extremely critical" at the National Cybersecurity Strategy Headquarters, whose head Masaaki Taira described an "emergency in cyberspace". Masaki Hiraoka of Blackpanda told the FT that AI lets attackers carry out work that once needed time-consuming investigation, making smaller services viable targets. Nobuo Miwa of S&J Corp told Reuters the attacks amount to "carpet bombing" and suggested AI may help foreign hackers overcome language barriers, while TrendAI data given to Reuters shows Japan recorded more cyber incidents in the first nine months of 2026 than in all of 2025. Japan's Financial Services Agency has reportedly told lenders to accept only ID-chip identification such as passports or MyNumber cards after driver's-licence images leaked in the Times Car attack.
Sources
- PCMag Australia · 10-Oct-2026
- Financial Times · 09-Oct-2026
- Reuters · 09-Oct-2026