On the 14th, KADOKAWA, a major Japanese publishing company also involved in anime production, released a statement regarding the issue where several of its group websites were inaccessible. The company explained the circumstances leading to the system failure, the progress of their investigation, and the extent of the impact on their main businesses and operations.

Since the early hours of June 8th, popular websites in Japan, such as the video sharing site 'Niconico Douga' and information pages for publications, have been inaccessible.

Regarding the circumstances of the system failure and the progress of the investigation, KADOKAWA explained, "Around 3:30 AM on the 8th, our group's data center servers were confirmed to have been subjected to a large-scale cyber attack, including ransomware." They continued, "To prevent further damage and preserve data, we immediately took emergency measures, such as shutting down the servers in the data center. This has resulted in the suspension of functions not only of several websites within our group but also some core systems managing business activities and accounting functions that share the same data center."

Regarding the impact on performance, KADOKAWA stated, "The impact of this incident on our current period performance is unknown at this time. We will promptly disclose any matters that need to be announced after thorough examination."

As for future responses and recovery prospects, the company noted, "Currently, we are fully committed to identifying the precise scope of the impact and restoring systems. We aim to promptly restore functions in all affected businesses and operations. Among our top priorities are rebuilding the core accounting functions and normalizing the manufacturing and logistics functions of our large-scale publishing business. We aim to achieve these objectives in stages starting next week and aim to build a secure network, server environment, and restore core systems by the end of June." They added, "For the restoration of 'Niconico Douga', it is necessary to rebuild the system in a secure environment. The exact recovery time depends on the results of the damage assessment, but it is expected to take more than a month. We plan to gradually resume services as they are restored."

The main impacts on businesses and operations

Publishing Business
The order system for physical books in Japan and the functions of digital manufacturing plants and logistics systems are currently stopped. This has resulted in order stoppages, decreased production volumes, and delays in logistics, leading to a reduction in shipment volumes.
Some functions of the editing and production support systems for physical and electronic books in Japan are stopped, and delays in the publication of some new releases (physical and electronic books) and reprints are expected.

Web Services Business
Services across the entire Niconico family, including "Niconico Douga," "Niconico Live," and "Niconico Channel," are suspended. Additionally, logging into external services using Niconico accounts is currently impossible.

MD Business
In several online shops operated by our company, some orders cannot be received, and some shipments are delayed.

Accounting Operations
The accounting system is also affected, and the settlement system is temporarily non-functional, which might cause delays in payments to some business partners.


Regarding information leakage, the investigation is ongoing. At present, there is no confirmation of leakage of personal information or credit card information, but the investigation will continue. The incident has also been reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission.

Source : ORICON NEWS