from Sanger's Review: http://www.y2kreview.com/

Y2K Bug to Take a Bite out of Japan Tomorrow (Linda Harrison, The Register [London])

Full text: "The millennium bug could hit Japan tomorrow because most Japanese companies start their financial year on 1 April. While the rest of us have nine-months' breathing space, many older PCs in Japan may read 1 April 2000 as the year 1900. Tomorrow's deadline may see the collapse of many computer systems, Professor Shumpei Kumon of the International University of Japan, has warned in today's Financial Times. A Gartner Group report last month said Japan had underestimated the year 2000 problem. The study ranked Japan alongside Armenia, Guatemala and North Korea. This insult prompted the Japanese government to show data proving the nation's readiness. An updated report from Gartner has since moved them into line with other industrialised economies. However, analysts remained sceptical about the validity of the Japanese government's figures. Data was filtered by industry agencies and few companies in Japan have disclosed efforts or spending on the problem, according to today's article." New York and Canada face the same looming deadline too: see Mar. 24. See also Mar. 18 for more on the Gartner report and Mar. 1 for more on Japan in general.

-- Norm (nwo@hotmail.com), March 31, 1999

Answers

OK, someone who knows for certain please tell me: is tomorrow the beginning of Japan's fiscal year 1999 or 2000?

-- Bill Byars (billbyars@softwaresmith.com), March 31, 1999.

According to PNG who lives there, it's fiscal year 1999.

-- none (none@none.none), April 01, 1999.

I don't live in Japan, but I have seen numerous posts here (over last 6 months) saying that Japan is just starting FY1999 on April 1, 1999.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), April 01, 1999.

I've yet to see a good explanation for this one.

Assuming that their fiscal year starting today is for 1999, how does that make a difference? Whether it's called 1999 or 2000, surely their internal clocks show it as already being April 1, (99) and if they look ahead a year to start preparing totals for the coming year, they will be calculating into the '00' year.

On a related point, I don't think companies or governments will publish too many problems relating to this 'JoAnne Effect' anyway. It's just not good for business, and the bottom line is the most important thing to them. Temporary fix-its can easily be written for this by putting the 'end' of the fiscal year at Dec 31/99. The only thing that would be buggered up is projections, and they can be extrapolated (fudged) quite easily.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), April 01, 1999.