TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan recommended Tuesday that all Japanese stockpile several days' worth of food and water as a precaution against any millennium bug problems. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said that while essential institutions appear to have completed preparations to prevent any widespread confusion from taking place over the New Year, people should take precautions for any event since there "may be small problems,'' Kyodo news agency reported. These precautions would include stockpiling several days' worth of food and water as well as checking balances in bank accounts prior to Dec. 31 this year, Kyodo added. The announcement was made at a meeting of a government advisory committee on the issue. The committee said that of some 2,281 key medical institutions around the country, only 49.3 percent had completed preparations and testing of their computer systems, Kyodo said. But the rest were expected to do so by the end of November. Banks, electrical communications firms and airlines had completed testing of their systems by the end of September, and virtually all electric power firms had done the same, the committee added. Of smaller and medium businesses, whose preparations had been lagging due to cost issues, some 92 percent appeared to have either completed preparations or be in the process of doing so, the committee said. Most Japanese are unlikely to be fazed by any potential problems during the several days directly after Dec. 31. Not only do many already keep supplies of food and water on hand in case of an earthquake, most stock up on basic goods prior to the New Year's holiday anyway, since virtually all stores are closed for four days around that time. The millennium bug, or Year 2000 problem, could cause many older computers to read the year 2000 as 1900, causing them to produce incorrect data or shut down

-- Lurker (eye@spy.net), October 26, 1999

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Bad times ahead for the land of limitless tears

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), October 26, 1999.