Japanese Government Requires Java and Internet Explorer 11 X86

Long time reader AmiMoJo writes: Japan has introduced "My Number", a social security number assigned to citizens and used to access government services. Unfortunately, the My Number management web portal requires the Java plug-in. Because this plug-in is deprecated in many browsers, only Internet Explorer 11 (32 bit) and Safari on Mac are supported. The explanation (translated) given for this is that in order to access My Number contactless card readers Java is the only option. Some browsers support IC card access but it seems that it is not mature enough to be viable.

Comments

Japan is a very bureaucratic nation

[Master5000]

They have a lot of paper and are pretty useless with computers. Usually the opposite from what you see in the news about Japan. They aren't that of an advanced nation if you look at the common man. So this shouldn't be a surprise. It's good that they're trying to automate some stuff but it will take some time and they will make some mistakes. Even dumb mistakes like this one.

Same mistake as Korea

[plsuh]

South Korea mandated the use of an ActiveX control for online payments in the 1990s, which has locked companies and banks there into a deprecated and dangerous technology. Only in the last couple of years has the government there started the process of getting rid of the damn POS system.

Someone please tell the Japanese government that what they are doing is a REALLY bad idea.

Re:unclear on the concept

[hey!]

I worked for years as a contractor developing software for government agencies, and in my experience they're often running software that is years out-of-date. This is a result of government budgets operating in a cash rather than accrual mentality -- i.e. that a penny saved is a penny earned. Taken to the extreme "a penny saved is a penny earned" is false.

Can you make do with a version of software that's EOL? Sure, but it'll cause problems. How can we solve those problems? Well, throw staff time at them. Would that be new hires? No, they're people whose salaries we're already paying. So the view you can minimize the immediate cash outlay by running obsolete software. This would not be reckoned by a private enterprise as a legitimate cost savings, but that's why the IT guys in government have to contend with.

So you have to look at government platform decisions like they were being made 10 years ago. Then allow for the development time for the project and this is how the calculation goes: 2017,minus three years for project development time, minus ten years for government lag time, and this is like a corporate in-house developer choosing applets as a platform in 2004.

Government IT guys run the gamut from incompetent to high competent, just like their private sector counterparts. But if you were to give them a letter grade (ABCDF) you have to deduct one letter grade from their ability to perform to account for the irrational financial incentives they have to deal with.