A considerable number of Japanese sites and games may be inaccessible today as engineers scramble to implement the latest PHP patch.

Two vulnerabilities in the programming language used by up to 70% of the internet were found late on October 21, with a fix being delivered soon after. The severity of the weaknesses, however, coupled with the time difference in Japan meant that many service providers simply chose to take down websites until work could begin the following day. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also made a rare intervention on the topic, urging a quick response.

As of the time of writing, Nico Nico Douga, Honto, and Bandai Channel remain closed for maintenance. Pixiv, DMM, and Animate all completed the work overnight. On the topic of games, some live service titles such as Umamusume: Pretty Derby and Heaven Burns Red went down temporarily, while others like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn remain offline.

In a comment for The Guardian, cybersecurity expert Professor Alan Woodward remarked that there may be "weeks and months of ongoing attacks" as hackers target unpatched sites. Last week already saw considerable fallout from server breaches domestically with Comic Cmoa and Burger King Japan.