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Anonymous Takes Down Japanese PM Website to Protest Whaling

Group resumes operations on #OpKillingBay campaign

Dec 10, 2015 14:55 GMT  ·  By
Shinzo Abe's website taken down by Anonymous DDoS attack
   Shinzo Abe's website taken down by Anonymous DDoS attack

Yet again, Anonymous activists have made their presence felt in Japan, taking down the country Prime Minister's official website with a series of coordinated DDoS attacks, protesting against Japan's whale hunting operations.

This most recent attack is part of the hacktivism group's #OpKillingBay operation, one that's been going on for more than two years.

Only the PM's website was targeted, this time

According to tweets sent out by the Anonymous member that launched the DDoS attack, it all happened yesterday, December 9, and it took down Shinzo Abe's (s-abe.or.jp) website for a few hours.

The attack was launched by the same hacker that earlier this year launched DDoS attacks against the websites of two of Japan's biggest airports: Tokyo's Narita airport and Nagoya's Chubu airport.

The same individual later targeted the websites of the Japan National Tourism Organization, Japan's Fishermen Union, and the town of Taiji (Wakayama region).

#OpKillingBay is still going strong after more than two years

All attacks were part of the #OpKillingBay campaign, one that aims to raise awareness of Japan's whale and dolphin hunting operations, which most people around the world disagree with.

As part of this same #OpKillingBay campaign, other Anonymous members targeted in the past: five Icelandic government websites, the site of Japan's Wakayama prefecture, the homepage of Japan's Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many more other Japanese government websites.

Similar operations also spawned from #OpKillingBay, like #OpWhales or #OpSeaworld, the latter aimed at the Seaworld organization and its alleged cruelty against animals used in its sea-themed parks.

This most recent DDoS attack seems to have been sparked by Japan’s resumption of whale hunting operations on December 1. Whaling has been banned worldwide for over 30 years, but Japan continues to use a loophole in international law to hunt whales for "scientific research."