Press Conference by Deputy Director-General for the Economic Affairs Bureau and National Y2K Coordinator

2000/1/1 7:10


I. Opening Statement by Deputy Director-General Kaoru Ishikawa of the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Y2K National Coordinator

Deputy Director-General Kaoru Ishikawa: Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you for joining us so early in the morning. Actually, I do not have much to say. You might have noticed that luckily so far, in those countries where the New Year has already arrived, there have not been any major problems. That is the main message which every government concerned has published thus far. You might have followed Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's press conference. His statement is now being distributed. Just after 00:00, the "hello darling" call caused some jamming in certain areas for the portable telephones only and the international lines for the Republic of the Philippines were congested, but that was just due to these Happy New Year calls. That is what I would like to report to you.

Incidentally, on the international basis, as you may know, there is an international cooperation scheme, the name of which is the International Year 2000 Cooperation Center (IY2KCC), the headquarters of which is in Washington DC, in the United States of America. I am one of the members of the Steering Committee. We had a telephone conference three hours ago about what is going on in each other's country. We will continue to get in touch through this IY2KCC system. Well, I think that is what I would like to report to you at this stage. I would like to receive any questions which you would like to raise. Please go ahead.


II. Reports of Y2K-related incidents in Japan

Mr. Andre Koloshin, ORT: You said there were no major problems. Were there any minor problems?

Mr. Ishikawa: Certainly, a few weather forecast machines had some troubles. Some reporting system - there was some report in Europe saying that there was some trouble in Japanese nuclear plants, which is not the case. For example, one of the instances to which they might be referring to is that every ten minutes those nuclear plants send information to the headquarters and one of these reports was skipped whereas the data itself was gathered. So no major thing happened actually.

Mr. Doug Struck, Washington Post: Do you know why it was skipped?

Mr. Ishikawa: We do not know.

Mr. Fernando Rodrigues, Folna de Sao Paulo: At what time was it skipped?

Mr. Ishikawa: At 0:02, but all the data were in the computer. It has nothing to do with the nuclear plant site. It is a transmission communications system.

Mr. Rodrigues: After that it was normalized?

Mr. Ishikawa: It was normalized at 0:12 automatically. So it might just be a simple skipping. They are checking the cause for that. The data itself was pulled out at 0:12 as well. In fact there was no data skipping. There was just a transmission skipping.

Mr. Struck: What other systems or what other segments have yet to be tested that you are watching? What has not started yet that will start today or tomorrow or Monday?

Mr. Ishikawa: As you may know, business has not been open from 28 December until 3 January in this country for centuries. So the first business day will be 4 January here. That will be a new challenge for us maybe. However, all those businesses have already been tested with the so-called dry-run test.

Mr. Struck: What sorts of things will start when business resumes that you will be watching?

Mr. Ishikawa: Business as usual. Each company will be continuing to watch their computer system or cash withdrawal system or these kinds of things to see that they are functioning normally.

Mr. Struck: Do you know anything about the financial market information system and what will be crucial in that when it begins?

Mr. Ishikawa: In that sector, bankers and all the experts and companies concerned, have established their own international cooperation network. They have been trying again and again so we are quite confident about that matter. Incidentally, I think this is the only country where each and every branch of even the smallest financial institutions have been checked under the system of the dry-run test.

Mr. Koloshin: So you do not know about businesses, but the zenginkyo is running well?

Mr. Ishikawa: Not only zenginkyo, but each and every financial institution was rolled over, using the traditional term if I dare say, for the dry-run test again and again before December. In other countries where businesses are not closed for the traditional reasons, that challenge would come on Monday, 3 January. But on that day, in this country for centuries businesses are closed. In that sense, while geographically speaking, we are one of the first countries where we have this challenge, as far as the businesses are concerned, we will be the last to face this challenge

Mr. Struck: I heard that 96,000 troops were on alert. Were they called to do anything over the New Year?

Mr. Ishikawa: No.

Mr. Struck: What about the airports? Most of them do not operate at night. When they resume operations...

Mr. Ishikawa: Sorry, I am not aware of any major or minor incidents there.

Mr. Struck: When do they resume operations?

Mr. Ishikawa: Sorry, I do not know. Have they stopped? I do not think so. The computer system?

Mr. Peter Martin, ABC: What do you know about incidents involving nuclear plants?

Mr. Ishikawa: I know that there were some reports about that matter. I was explaining about that. It was a transmission system which skipped one report. Every ten minutes there is an automatic report from the monitoring system. At 0:02, this report was skipped, whereas the data itself were collected, but the reporting system skipped one of those reports. For the report of 0:12, it functioned normally, so we could pull out the data which were gathered for the report of 0:02. We do not know whether this is connected with Y2K or just a normal small misfunction. We do not know the reason yet.

Mr. Martin: Is that the only incident you are aware of?

Mr. Ishikawa: There are two categories. One is Tohoku Electric and one is Hokuriku Electric. Both are for the transmission reporting.

Mr. Martin: They both had similar characteristics?

Mr. Ishikawa: No. For the Hokuriku Electric, it is just for the emergency circuit. For example, if there is an emergency case, they use a special circuit and when they test it, the circuit which was not usually used, they found that there was something wrong.

Mr. Martin: It was a discovery brought about by the Y2K testing process in that case?

Mr. Ishikawa: Not through Y2K testing, just simply when they checked, the normal route was functioning, but the second route was not functioning. It is just a transmission reporting system.

Mr. Martin: Can either of them be classified as Y2K related?

Mr. Ishikawa: We do not know the reason yet. It might be Y2K related or it might be a simple, usual, small thing which happens daily. They are checking.


III. Preparation by the Government of Japan for potential Y2K-related problems

Mr. Struck: Japan was said to be late in starting to address this Y2K programming and then went on a bit of a crash course to do so. Do you see the absence of problems an indication that there was not a major difficulty to start with or that Japan did a great job in fixing the problem?

Mr. Ishikawa: Thank you for the question. Actually, I do not share your view that we were late in starting. The IY2KCC system and other international solidarity indeed functioned very well. Most of the major computer societies and economies have started more or less at the same period. One of the very unfortunate misunderstandings was caused by the non-existence of an English version of what we had been doing during that period of time two years ago. Some private consulting firm categorized Japan as a "no information country" because they said that no English version was available for certain information. That was an unfortunate starting point from that viewpoint, but for the Y2K awareness or Y2K physical preparation, things were rather smooth. That is my impression.

Ms. Hideko Takayama, Newsweek: Did you say two years ago?

Mr. Ishikawa: Some specific groups came two years ago. Some other groups came one year ago. It depends on the sectors and groups. But as far as the Japanese Government side is concerned, as you may know, the Prime Minister's Office took the initiative three years ago. We had started the action three years ago on an official basis, I mean. But of course in the banking sector, for example, they had done it since the 1980s.

Mr. Struck: Well, if everything is under control, do you think it was therefore unnecessary to warn people to stockpile food and water?

Mr. Ishikawa: That is also a very good question. Thank you for asking that. Because this is the first challenge for human history, we all decided, not only in Japan, but those who are in charge of Y2K all over the world, to establish this international cooperation network so that we can gather our wisdom together. The joint conclusion after all, was that we better call on people to prepare for a long weekend. In the United States, the authorities used the words "long weekend with a winter storm," this kind of thing. We used the words "traditional New Year's week stocking." It depended of course on the customs and habits of each nation, but we authorities felt that preparation is the best for something which may not happen, but which might happen. Because, in spite of the good preparation, not only in Japan, I mean, but also all over the world, again, if I may reiterate what I have said earlier, no one has ever encountered this sort of challenge. Preparedness is the best solution. That is why, actually, before calling for these kinds of long weekend preparations, we called on each private firm and public institution and so on to launch contingency plans, because on the equipment side or machine side, what should be done has been done. But the key words were contingency plans, exercise and eventual stockpiling for a long weekend. It was not only in Japan, but also in major countries, the same guidance was given actually. Thank you very much for joining us. I hope you have a good oshogatsu.






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