The company said it became aware of the hack several days after a was posted on the popular text-sharing website Pastebin by a group called "NullCrew" claiming to have accessed Sony servers and listing logins and email addresses.
Sony said the information was taken from at least one server run by a third-party service provider based in China. The company is still investigating the details of the breach, but it appears no servers operated directly by Sony were compromised, company spokesman Hiroshi Okubo said.
"We became aware of the incident late last night or early this morning," said Okubo, referring to Japan time.
The information was on customers of Sony Mobile Communications, the company's mobile arm, in the Asian countries.
The message posted on Pastebin on Sept. 3 claims to have hacked Sony Mobile and lists hundreds of what appear to be login IDs and email addresses from the company's site.