A networking failure at Amazon Web Services' AP-Northeast-1 region in Tokyo caused more than six hours of outages and problems.

The company said that its AWS Direct Connect hybrid cloud networking service had trouble connecting due to multiple network device problems.

The data center itself did not go down, but the issues caused widespread service outages in Japan.

AWS Direct Connect is a cloud service solution that establishes a dedicated network connection from a users' premises to AWS. Companies can create a private connection between AWS and their data center, office, or colocation environment.

"This event was due to a problem with multiple core network devices used to connect network traffic using Direct Connect to all Availability Zones within the AP-Northeast-1 region," AWS said in a status update.

"Between 3:30PM and 9:42PM PDT we experienced elevated packet loss for customers connecting to AWS services within AP-Northeast-1 Region through their Direct Connect connections. This was caused by the loss of several core networking devices that are used to connect Direct Connect network traffic to all Availability Zones in the AP-Northeast-1 Region."

The glitch brought down online brokerage Matsui Securities Co., as well as parts of SBI Securities Co. and Rakuten Securities Inc. Retail bank Mizuho Bank said its Internet services were disrupted.

Airline ANA Holdings was forced to delay a number of flights due to problems with its ticketing and check-in system, while Japan Airlines Co. could not use a system that manages the weight of air cargo, but said passenger flights were not affected.

The Meteorological Agency could not update the data on its website, and phone carrier NTT Docomo said it had a minor service disruption.

"The Financial Services Agency will look into it to understand what happened and is asking affected companies to prioritize the needs of their customers," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said following the outage.