Japan’s most popular beer might soon be disappearing from retail shelves.

Here’s the deal…

A massive cyberattack has knocked out production at all 30 of Asahi Group’s breweries across Japan, forcing the country’s largest brewer to shut down operations indefinitely.

The attack, discovered on September 29, crippled the digital backbone that keeps the business moving — from ordering and shipping systems to customer service lines. While brewing equipment itself wasn’t damaged, the disruption made production impossible.

“Asahi holds an estimated one-third of Japan’s domestic beer market,” according TechRadar, “but it has a global reach through its other brands, including Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch and Fuller’s.

And retailers are already warning of shortages.

Asahi Super Dry, the company’s best-selling lager, a staple in izakayas (a type of casual Japanese bar that serves small plates of food alongside drinks) and convenience stores nationwide, could vanish from shelves within days if the outage continues. And launches of new products — from seasonal beers to soft drinks — have also been put on ice.

The company insists there’s no evidence so far that customer or employee data was compromised. But officials have yet to confirm what kind of attack it was, who might be responsible, or when production will restart.

The financial toll could be enormous. Japan accounts for roughly half of Asahi’s global profits, meaning every day offline cuts deep. Experts say attacks like this expose just how vulnerable modern manufacturing is: one breach in digital infrastructure, and an entire supply chain grinds to a halt.

“Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. is currently experiencing a system failure caused by a cyberattack, affecting operations in Japan,” Asahi says in a statement. “At this time, there has been no confirmed leakage of personal information or customer data to external parties. However, due to the system failure, the following operations have been suspended:

“We are actively investigating the cause and working to restore operations; however, there is currently no estimated timeline for recovery.”

Going into the weekend Asahi was still scrambling to rebuild its systems using outside cybersecurity teams. And the only thing clear is that Japan’s most popular beer brand faces a long, uncertain road back.

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