Microsoft bids farewell to Internet Explorer on Thursday, stirring a sense of panic among many businesses and government agencies in Japan that waited to update their websites until the last minute.

Since April, Tokyo-based software developer Computer Engineering & Consulting has been inundated with requests for help.

Those customers are mostly government agencies, financial institutions and manufacturing and logistics companies that operate websites only compatible with Internet Explorer.

Microsoft officially will halt support for Internet Explorer on Wednesday U.S. time after 27 years of service. Many users are transitioning to Google Chrome.

A March survey by information technology resource provider Keyman's Net revealed a large number of organizations in Japan relied on Internet Explorer, with 49% of respondents saying they used the browser for work.

They said the browser was used for employee attendance management, expenses settlement and other internal tools. In some cases, they have no choice but to use Internet Explorer because of clients' systems used to handle orders. Over 20% of these respondents did not know or had not figured out how to transition to other browsers after Internet Explorer's retirement.

Source: FNNプライムオンライン