The head of a major Japanese business lobby says AI-assisted attempts to hack corporate computer systems this year have risen more than 50 percent from 2025.
The Japan Association of Corporate Executives Chairperson Yamaguchi Akio cited research by IBM Japan in his remarks on Tuesday. Yamaguchi is also the company’s chair.
He said he has urged association members to address vulnerabilities in their systems.
Japanese companies face the urgent challenge of training information security workers amid the growing threat of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. That is in addition to the need to invest in systems.
A survey published earlier this year by the Japan Users Association of Information Systems indicated a serious shortage of workers familiar with information security.
Around three-quarters of businesses with at least 100 billion yen, or about 630 million dollars, in sales said they do not have enough staff handling cybersecurity issues. The survey’s findings reflected responses from over 950 businesses covering 10 industries.
The survey also showed that 7.1 percent of companies suffered cyberattacks through virus-infected email attachments in the 12 months that ended in March. Unauthorized logins to internet services affected 6.5 percent of the firms, while 5.2 percent were hit by ransomware attacks.
Meanwhile, the number of Japanese businesses reporting hacking incidents continues to grow. The latest targets include a railway operator in western Japan and watchmaker Citizen.