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To: long-gone who wrote (27477)	2/1/1999 1:54:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

' Japan PerspectiveFeb 1, 1999 y2k Finance Business Politics Culture ___________________________________________________ Financial markets and our borderless economies are facing dramatic challenges in 1999. Japan, the world's 2nd largest economy, will play a pivotal role in defining the economic future of the next decade. Is Japan up to the task? Will Japan financially reform or retreat? Will Japan be y2k ready? How important is Japan to your life? I suggest you start HERE. __________________________________________________________________ Comments Suggestions Questions Feb 1, 1999 Nippon TV and y2k What's this??? A y2k story on Japanese TV? Sure enough, Nippon TV had a small segment on their "Ombudsman" show Sunday night Jan 31, 1999. The hidden face of a computer company executive explaining that if a company is just starting now... they are sushi. His message was so scary because he spoke with no traditional Japanese vagueness. Bluntly telling the audience that it is too late. A lot of unanswered questions were asked about power, telecommunications, banking and transportation. Dramatic music and questions with no real answers...todays 'journalism.' Pitiful. The only infrastructure segment that I have confidence in is NTT. NTT is truely as technically competent a company as one can find anywhere on earth. The banks will have an opportunity to begin network testing on February 14th... If they are ready to try testing. Several of the Japanese banking networks are ready to accept user testing this month. I'll post a schedule later this week. Tokyo Power and the gas companies are scaring the life out me. I could tell from the language used by the announcers that they were scared also. There is a unique Japanese technique of "zurui kotoba" or a kind of cunning or misleading language that indicates the speaker has absolutely no faith in what they are saying, but are saying it anyway. Urging the companies to fight on, but with a hopeless and serious look in their eyes. It's the same face TV reporters use when the topic is a tragic death. Tokyo Power says they'll be finished November, 1999 and the gas companies say December, 1999. Nothing like cutting it close, guys. Tokyo Power made a recent announcement that generating stations have no digital equipment that uses dates, therefore power would be just fine. This is probably the second stupidest statement ever made by a power company representative in the history of statements. The number 1 stupidest statement was made by another Tokyo Power representative about 8 months ago. He was quoted in a newpaper as saying that it is unreasonable for people to think that their electric service would be interrupted because of the year 2000 problem. After all, Japan has earthquakes and typhoons all the time... No mention was made of power distribution in spite of the fact that Japan has a substation remote automation rate of over 98%. One small segment showed a small business owner explaining that he understands the problem quite well, thank you. His old system crashes now when he projects into next year. Here, look for yourself, Mr. Cameraman. He planned to do what all his business associates planned to do...buy a new system since the old one needed to be replaced anyway. An abolute bottom-of-the-line system will cost him 6,000,000 yen (US$50,000) but he doesn't need top-of-the-line. Naturally, his long time bank turned him down for a loan. He, his business and his employees are sushi. .... ____ www2.gol.com