Japan’s justice ministry websites blocked after alleged cyberattack

Tokyo, May 9 (EFE).- Access to several web pages of Japan’s justice ministry has been blocked intermittently since Monday night after an alleged cyberattack by global hacker group Anonymous in protest of the country’s refugee policy, the government said Tuesday.

“Since last night there have been difficulties in accessing several websites. Although they recovered temporarily, there were problems again since early this morning,” a ministry spokesperson told EFE.

The case is being investigated in order to take the required measures, he added.

A Twitter account under the name of Anonymous claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Japanese Government is deporting Political asylum seekers. We oppose this inhuman practice and warn the Japanese government. Protect the refugees! Do not return!” it said in a tweet.

“We will continue to support refugees against these fascist attitudes towards refugees. The government of Japan will always be our target,” another tweet read.

The outage, which affects, among others, the home page of the justice ministry, began at 8 pm on Monday and continued at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, with several Japanese citizens expressing their grievances on Twitter.

On Mar. 24, Japan unveiled its guidelines on refugee recognition for the first time following criticism of its lack of transparency on the matter.

Japan normally grants people recognized as refugees a five-year residence permit with the possibility of later applying for permanent residency if they fulfill certain requirements.

The Asian country’s annual rate of refugee recognition normally does not exceed 4 percent of applications. EFE

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