Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) data breach

What happened

The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which runs Japan's widely taken bookkeeping (boki) exams, said on November 10, 2026 that information on up to about 980,000 test takers (about 1.97 million records) may have leaked after unauthorized access to an external server used to manage its online exams. The system management company reported the intrusion on November 4; a malicious file had been placed on the system on November 1, and it was deleted and the vulnerability patched the same day. The data covers people who took eight online exams, including bookkeeping, retail marketing (hanbaishi), Nissho PC and business English, between April 1, 2022 and November 4, 2026: name and phonetic reading, gender, date of birth, pass/fail results and scores, plus email address, phone number and address where test takers entered them. Payment card data is not included, and JCCI says it has not confirmed any actual leak or misuse so far; it reported the incident to Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission on November 9.

What should I do?

1. Be wary of emails, texts, calls or letters that claim to be from the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a local chamber or an exam center, especially ones that mention your exam results or scores.
2. Don't click links or open attachments in unexpected messages, and never type passwords or card details into a site reached from one; JCCI says it will not ask for passwords or card information by email, text or phone.
3. Expect targeted scams such as fake job, course or certification offers that use your name, birthday and exam history to look genuine.
4. If you have questions, call JCCI's business department at 03-6402-6154 (weekdays 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.) using the number on its official website.

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