News
Japanese beverage giant Asahi Group Holdings announced that it has postponed the release of its financial results for the July–September 2025 quarter after a cyberattack on September 29 crippled its shipping and accounting systems.
The company initially planned to disclose quarterly earnings within 45 days of the quarter’s end but said the timing will now depend on the progress of system restoration.
The ransomware attack has disrupted core operations — including order processing and logistics — and as of now, the company’s digital ordering and shipment systems have not been fully restored.
Source: Reuters
Background: Long-lasting impact of the ransomware attack
The cyberattack on Asahi on September 29 brought its domestic logistics, ordering, and accounting systems to a standstill.
The culprit was ransomware — malicious software that encrypts company data and demands payment for decryption keys.
The group claiming responsibility calls itself “Qilin” and alleges it has stolen company data.
A growing pattern of attacks in Japan
Japan has seen a rising wave of similar incidents.
In 2024, Dwango, the operator of the popular video site Niconico, was also hit by ransomware, forcing a long-term service shutdown.
Local governments and hospitals have repeatedly been targeted, and experts warn that Japan’s heavy dependence on integrated digital systems makes large corporations particularly vulnerable.
Financial disclosure delays and system paralysis
Due to the disruption, Asahi has delayed its quarterly earnings announcement for Q3 2025.
Full system recovery remains uncertain, and normal operations have yet to resume completely.
Temporary shift to paper and fax
In early October, Asahi restarted production and shipments of flagship products such as Super Dry at select factories.
However, with its electronic systems still down, orders and deliveries are being handled manually — via paper forms and fax.
It’s a stopgap measure, but also a pragmatic decision to keep logistics running.
In short, Asahi is keeping its supply chain alive the old-fashioned way — through paper and fax, a symbol of resilience amid digital paralysis.
Voices from abroad
(Source: Reddit /r/japan)
Maybe Japan is the strongest country in the world right now against cyberattacks after all. There’s no risk of cyberattack if there’s no cyberwhatever. They’ve been playing the long game, and people get to keep their job away from the threat of AI — incredible 4D chess move.
You mean that Minister who was in charge of cyber security but had never used a computer before was right all along!?
His incompetence was for the sake of protecting his country — we misunderstood him.
Hacking a children’s hospital is the lowest, but hacking a brewery? That makes no sense.
Hackers follow the money. They don’t need a reason for their targets.
Why doesn’t anyone seem angry at the hackers?
The hackers are obviously at fault, but the real issue is that companies downplay the risk. They don’t want to spend on security and only panic once the damage is done. The negligence is infuriating.
Everyone’s angry, but for the company it’s a matter of shame. No one wants to admit their IT system is a mess or that an employee fell for a phishing link. Still, going after beer is just bizarre.
Mock Japan all you want, but rejecting the U.S.-style “speed over security” startup culture might actually be a strength now.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Japan’s “old ways” can still come in handy sometimes.
“Paper and fax are secure”? What, you think they can’t be forged? Perfect defense, huh. /s
When people say “if the Internet goes down, finance collapses,” I just think — use paper and telephones. It’s slower, but not impossible.
Maybe Japan was right not to get rid of fax machines.
The people pushing for digital transformation in Japan just lost the battle to paper invoices.
Fax machines work fine. Being old doesn’t mean being bad.
There’s no such thing as perfect cybersecurity — it’s about how fast you can recover. Asahi failed spectacularly. Expect a 90-degree bow from the executives.
You just know the old heads at Asahi are saying, “Told you we should’ve kept the fax machines.”
I predicted this after the attack. Old-school still works. In Japan, phones and faxes still function just fine — not everything needs to be online.
Analysis and Commentary
Structural risk behind digital centralization
Some Western commentators joked that Japan “still uses fax,” but that’s a misunderstanding.
Asahi wasn’t using fax in normal times — it was a last-resort manual workaround after a total system shutdown.
Ironically, it was years of digital integration that magnified the damage.
When one unified system handling orders, logistics, and accounting went down, the entire operation froze nationwide.
This is the downside of hyper-centralized digital infrastructure — one failure can take down everything.
This pattern — centralization → collapse → analog fallback — is not unique to Japan; it’s a global corporate risk.
Japan’s cybersecurity weaknesses
Asahi’s case reflects a wider issue across Japanese industry.
Many firms have embraced digital efficiency and cloud integration while neglecting security investment.
Ransomware can destroy backups and cripple entire organizations.
In 2024, Dwango suffered a similar fate, and many hospitals and municipalities have since faced disruptions.
Cyberattacks are no longer rare — they’re part of everyday business risk.
Cyber warfare and state-backed hackers
The group “Qilin” reportedly operates within Russian-speaking cybercrime networks.
But beyond criminal motives, state-linked cyber operations are rising sharply.
North Korea, for instance, is believed to have stolen over $2 billion in cryptocurrency between 2022 and 2024 — funding nuclear and missile programs.
Cyber warfare now targets not only governments but also private infrastructure in finance, logistics, and energy.
During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, satellite communications were crippled by a cyberattack on Viasat, just before the assault began.
Similarly, Japan’s digitally interconnected economy faces the risk that a communications blackout could paralyze the nation.
Conclusion: Rethinking “efficiency” and resilience
Asahi’s crisis is more than a corporate mishap — it’s a snapshot of Japan’s national cyber-security challenge.
Digital integration boosts productivity, but over-centralization creates fragility.
The problem isn’t that analog systems are strong, but that modern ones are too fragile.
What Japan needs next is not just digitalization, but resilient digitalization — systems designed to recover quickly and continue functioning under attack.
Distributed architecture, redundant backups, and manual fallback plans must become standard.
And cybersecurity cannot be left to corporations alone — it demands national coordination and public-private collaboration.
Asahi’s experience serves as a warning:
If we fail to redesign our digital society with resilience in mind, the next system to crash might not be a company’s — but a nation’s.
References
- Reuters: “Asahi postpones financial results announcement citing cyberattack”
- Reuters: “Asahi beers running out in Japan as cyberattack shutdown lingers”
- Reuters: “Japan’s Asahi restarts beer production following cyberattack”
- Dwango Co. – Official notice of data breach caused by ransomware
- KADOKAWA Group – Cyberattack incident report (PDF)
