STORY:
Japan Prepares for Y2K

Nation is prepared to handle computer failures, but experts believe it won't happen.

(Like most modern countries, Japan has set in motion contingency plans that call for quick action should the computer Y2K bug hit on midnight January 1, 2000 according to the Asahi News Service.

Five minutes before midnight on Jan. 1, East Japan Railways Co. (JR East) plans to park all trains running at their nearest stations to check for any anomalies. Service will be resumed at 12:05 a.m. Keisei Electric Railways is expected to take similar steps. However, the other JR companies Hokkaido, Tokai, West, Shikoku and Kyushu will offer service on New Year's Eve as in past years.

In the aviation industry, all 11 airlines that regularly provide service have mapped out their crisis management plans. Airports and regulatory facilities finished running mock tests and changing parts in late-September.

Fifty-seven passenger-shipping firms are expected to complete tests by the end of October. Vessels will be driven manually around midnight, the firms reportedly said.

The Japan Travel Bureau Inc. and Kinki Nippon Tourists Co. said long ago that they will wait to offer package tours that include midnight flights until safety can be confirmed. JAL Pak, Japan Airlines' tour planning affiliate, said safety on some of its tours straddling the new year have been guaranteed, and that they are already on sale.

The Japan Association of Travel Agents and Overseas Tour Operators Association of Japan took a poll on the Y2K issue among lodging facilities abroad. In China, 16 of 36 facilities polled reportedly said that ''there is a possibility that some systems, such as reservations, could experience trouble.''

The government has been instructing various businesses in the five main fields finance, energy, telecommunications, transportation and medicine to fix programming and conduct tests since it announced plans to act against the Y2K bug last September.

As a result, aside from a handful of medical agencies, municipalities and small- to medium-sized industries, countermeasures are in place according to the Asahi News Service.  

Source: Asahi News Service

DATE: 10/4/99

For more E2000 stories, click here:
news | events | Y2K | today's news