Since late June to early July 2025, the official Pokemon Center Online website in Japan was down for unscheduled emergency maintenance.

Now, we finally know the reason behind the emergency maintenance. After the website reopened on July 3, 2025, The Pokemon Company posted an announcement, saying that they had detected unauthorized login attempts made with matching usernames and passwords on their websites.

The company claimed that these matching usernames and passwords came from an external source that has nothing to do with their company’s services, but in order to prevent further harm to customers, they took down the website as a safety precaution.

In order to provide a safe environment for all users, The Pokemon Company has reset the passwords of all user accounts on the Pokemon Center Online website. Customers that sign in from July 3 onwards will be asked to change their password with the following conditions in mind:

1. Set a password that has never been used before on the Pokemon Center Online website
2. Set a password that isn’t being used and has never been used before on other websites
3. Set a password that cannot be easily guessed by third parties. This means customers should avoid using passwords that contain their personal information, such as their name and date of birth

In addition, The Pokemon Company will stop the use of any account that has been suspected of being hacked or accessed by a malicious third party. They will also introduce two-factor authentication to beef up security from August 2025.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.