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Minister in Charge of Japan's Cybersecurity Says He Has Never Used a Computer (nytimes.com)
Futurepower(R) shares a report: A lot of people don't use computers. Most of them aren't in charge of a nation's cybersecurity. But one is. Japanese lawmakers were aghast on Wednesday when Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, the minister who heads the government's cybersecurity office, said during questioning in Parliament that he had no need for the devices, and appeared confused when asked basic technology questions. "I have been independently running my own business since I was 25 years old," he said. When computer use is necessary, he said, "I order my employees or secretaries" to do it. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source.] "I don't type on a computer," he added.
Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were. "I don't know details well," he said. "So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how's that?" The comments were immediately criticized. "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures," said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.
Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were. "I don't know details well," he said. "So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how's that?" The comments were immediately criticized. "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures," said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.
I could argue that the US president knows a similar amount about politics or diplomatics, but then I guess that honor could be extended to most in his administration.
See guys, now that it happens in another country is when you see it is a weird thing.
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
He knows how to do business things. Sit at desks. Make calls. Write reports. Attend board meetings. Shake hands. Carry briefcases. All the business skills you need for general businessing.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
People shouldn't be all that surprised about it considering how despite outwardly being very high tech, the Japanese can be surprisingly low-tech in many regards.
One good example of this is how email hasn't become as commonplace as it has in most of the developed world. No, people in Japan, particularly companies, instead chose to use fax machines to achieve the same tasks as it was still the 1980s. Another example is that the very old fashioned hierarchies within companies allows bosses to be exactly like this computer illiterate cyber security chief. While this may seem really odd to us westerners, it's perfectly normal over there.
As for how someone so ill fitted for the job has been given said job, it's more to do with how jobs like his are first and foremost given out based on party affiliation rather than aptitude for the job or any kind of merit. It sort of makes you wonder if it was better that rather than having political appointees actually run government organizations like this, limit political appointees within them to oversight roles rather than active management.
"Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
This is much better than having someone who thinks he is a cybersecurity expert after blacklisting a website on his home router. That guy would not think it's safe to plug in a random USB stick in a nuclear power plant terminal because "of course the plant has a firewall".
He at least KNOWS that he has to ask experts for technical questions. It's the half-knowledge that's most dangerous.
bickerdyke
Robert Moses, who tore up a bunch of New York City neighborhoods to build freeways, never drove a car. (He had a chauffeur drive him everywhere)
While I agree that it's odd, I'm not sure that it really matters. As long as he knows how to put qualified people in key positions, then that's all that really matters. How many of his predecessors had to actually code or do anything hands on while in that position? If they could, would it be a smart use of their time? And just how effective would they have been?
Eisenhower was criticized in his day for delegating and not being hands on enough. But he was smart enough to put the right people in the right positions. History certainly judged him more favorably than his critics at the time.
Most science ministers lack a science degree and there have certainly been some decidedly uneducated education ministers. Defence ministers have rarely served in the armed forces and we once had a Chancellor of the Exchequer who could not balance his credit card. Sadly, in a democracy, the only qualification for the job that counts is that you got more votes than anyone else and all this requires is that you look like less of a drooling idiot than the other people standing for election...and sometimes even that isn't true.
Sounds like he is 100% perfect at cybersecurity. No devices, no compromises. :)
Most science ministers lack a science degree and there have certainly been some decidedly uneducated education ministers.
We have both of those currently here in the US.
Defence ministers have rarely served in the armed forces and we once had a Chancellor of the Exchequer who could not balance his credit card.
Speaking as a certified accountant I can definitively say that the skill sets for personal finance and for corporate or government finance bear very little resemblance to each other so I'm not really sure what your point about the Chancellor of the Exchequer is. Just because someone is irresponsible in their personal finances doesn't mean they are incompetent or irresponsible with their professional responsibilities.
And "balance his credit card"? I don't know anybody who actually reconciles (the proper term for it) their personal credit card statements in any great detail. Most people quickly glance over their statement for obvious incorrect charges and then call it a day. Companies reconcile their credit cards but individuals seldom do. I don't really see this as evidence of anything.
It sounds strange to say, in 2018, that someone "has never used a computer", but there is some merit in the argument that an executive or high ranking government leader should be earning hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars an hour to type letters and answer eMails. There are people who can do that for him or her, and probably should be doing that for him or her.
A management job or even a government minister's job is not to do the work of his department or company himself. Maybe this particular minister achieved his non-governmental success by delegation, perhaps? And if he chooses his subordinates wisely, he can be perfectly effective.
He should be judged on the merits of his department, not on whether he can touch type. If the Japanese Cyber Security ministry does good work, then he is doing a good job. If not, then he should be replaced. Whether he uses a computer or not is misrepresenting his duty as the skill set of a minimum wage employee at the lowest pay scale.
The vast majority of people are employees. During their lifetime, they never have (and never will) manage other people. Since they've never had to do it, they only difficulty they attribute to managing is the aspect of it that they see - being told what to do. So they assume all a manger has to do is tell people what to do. And since anyone could do that, therefore managers are useless drains on a company (or country).
Once you've actually done the job of managing people, you realize just how asinine people can be, and how much work is involved in getting a group of people to work together smoothly. A good manager is worth their weight in gold. The difference in efficiency is enormous - like getting a group of people to clean a beach by assigning each one an equal sized strip parallel to the beach, vs everyone just wandering off in random directions. If he's good at managing and has competent advisors and sub-managers, he'll be fine.