Nichirei Corp. plans to resume business operations starting July 17 [3] after a cyberattack paralyzed its logistics and shipping systems.
As one of Japan's largest frozen food and logistics providers, the disruption threatens the stability of the cold-chain supply network. Any prolonged outage in refrigerated warehousing can lead to significant food waste, and retail shortages across the country.
The system failure began on July 13 [1]. The company later announced the cyberattack on July 15 [2]. The breach affected the headquarters' systems and refrigerated warehouses operated by the Nichirei Logi Group within Japan.
According to the company, the attack caused a total stoppage of frozen food shipments and halted the movement of goods into and out of its warehouses. The disruption forced the company to seek immediate technical assistance to secure its infrastructure.
"The headquarters system has been restored," a Nichirei spokesperson said [1].
To ensure a safe return to service, the company is working with an external security specialist firm to investigate the root cause and establish measures to prevent a recurrence. The company said it will restart operations sequentially starting July 17 [3] after implementing safety measures with the external firm.
"After taking safety measures with an external security specialist company, we plan to sequentially resume operations from the 17th," a Nichirei spokesperson said [2].
While the headquarters' systems are back online, the full impact on the logistics network continues to be assessed. The company has not yet released the specific nature of the attack, or whether any customer data was compromised during the breach.
“The headquarters system has been restored”
This incident underscores the vulnerability of critical food infrastructure to cyber threats. Because Nichirei manages a significant portion of Japan's cold-chain logistics, a system failure does not just affect one company, but potentially the entire food distribution pipeline. The reliance on external security firms for recovery highlights a growing trend among Japanese industrial giants to outsource cybersecurity response as threats become more sophisticated.
