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Japan cyber security minister admits he has never used a computer

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A Japanese minister in charge of cyber security has provoked astonishment by admitting he has never used a computer in his professional life, and appearing confused by the concept of a USB drive.
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Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, is the deputy chief of the government's cyber security strategy office and also the minister in charge of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that Tokyo will host in 2020.

In parliament on Wednesday however, he admitted he doesn't use computers.

"Since the age of 25, I have instructed my employees and secretaries, so I don't use computers myself," he said in a response to an opposition question in a lower house session, local media reported.

He also appeared confused by the question when asked about whether USB drives were in use at Japanese nuclear facilities.

His comments were met with incredulity by opposition lawmakers.

"It's unbelievable that someone who has not touched computers is responsible for cyber security policies," said opposition lawmaker Masato Imai.

And his comments provoked a firestorm online.

"Doesn't he feel ashamed?" wrote one Twitter user. "Today any company president uses a PC. He doesn't even know what a USB is. Holy cow."

Another joked that perhaps Sakurada was simply engaged in his own kind of cyber security.


"If a hacker targets this Minister Sakurada, they wouldn't be able to steal any information. Indeed it might be the strongest kind of security!"

Sakurada has been in office just over a month, after being appointed in a cabinet reshuffle following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's re-election as head of his political party.

But he has already come fire for other gaffes in parliament including garbling an opposition lawmaker's name and repeatedly stating "I don't know the details" when questioned about his new Olympic brief.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...rity-minister-admits-has-never-used-computer/
 
That's a real shock, coming from the most advanced country on the planet.
 
That's a real shock, coming from the most advanced country on the planet.
From my limited experience with Japanese people, they don't seem to be very computer literate. I showed a guy once how to calculate in excel and he thought it was some sort of magic.
 
15/16 years ago, one of our school teacher told a story that Japan's IT minister once gave an speech/interview about importance of IT. Problem was, he kept on pronouncing IT(eye tee) as 'it'... Dunno how true that story was...
 
Damn i thought pakistan was fucked up, with these kinds of situation in the world. But ducking J ! The most technologically advanced country has this to deal with? Ai yai yaie
 
Maybe that's why Japan missed out information technology age, it's once in a life time technologically revolutionary time that no countries can afford to lose, now you don't hear much exiting news about innovationa and new technology coming out of Japan like you did in 80's and 90's.
 
This guy has advisors.

They advise him and he probably makes the decisions based on national interest of the time.

This is the only conclusion I come to.
 
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