Japan to Put 96,000 Soldiers on Millennium Alert

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991207/tc/japan_defense_2.html

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 07, 1999

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Tuesday December 7 4:25 AM ET

Japan to Put 96,000 Soldiers on Millennium Alert

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan, which has come under fire for not being prepared for major disasters, announced on Tuesday it would put tens of thousands of military personnel on alert at year-end to deal with possible millennium bug-related accidents

About 96,000 Self-Defense Forces staff will be on alert across the country for two days from New Year's Eve to deal with possible emergencies triggered by the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer glitches, officials at the Defense Agency said.

The agency also plans to put more than 100 aircraft, warships and special vehicles on standby, and deploy several chemical warfare units, the officials said.

They stressed, however, that the agency was simply trying to be prepared for all contingencies associated with the millennium computer problem and was not going on the alert to cope with any possible military attacks.

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi recently made a nationwide television appeal for people not to worry about the millennium bug, but he will still be on hand on New Year's Eve in case a crisis breaks out.

Obuchi plans to spend New Year's Eve at the prime minister's official residence in central Tokyo with some other ministers as a precaution in case of any major disruptions.

In October the government advised the public to stockpile several days' worth of food and water as a precaution, even though it said Japan was well prepared for the so-called Y2K bug.

Japanese cabinets have come under heavy fire in the past for their sluggish responses to crises such as the massive Kobe earthquake in 1995 and most recently, the nation's worst nuclear accident at a uranium processing plant last September.

Obuchi, whose popularity has tumbled lately due in part to ruling coalition squabbles, is keen to look ready for anything when the clock strikes midnight and the new millennium begins.

The millennium bug, or Year 2000 (Y2K) problem, could make some computers read the year 2000 as 1900, causing them to produce incorrect data or shut down.

That has raised concerns over the potential for serious problems with transportation, power, communication, banking and other systems which are highly reliant on computer technology.

The United States and Russia, meanwhile, are planning for defense specialists to sit together at a Colorado command center over the New Year to monitor the effect of Y2K on nuclear forces and prevent each from thinking the other has launched a strike.

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 07, 1999.


I think they are just making a new monster movie, 'Godzilla vs the Y2K bug'. :-))

-- John (jh@NotReal.ca), December 07, 1999.

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