平成 (Heisei) commonly translated to "Achieving Peace" as stated in the article, can also be read as "Flat Growth" which is more indicative of the past two decades here :)
The main issues I see with this is, rather than just "I don't trust the government":
1. They'll do a scan of all devices then ask the ISPs to provide customer information for the vulnerable IPs found so that the government can contact them. So now you'll end up with a big fat list somewhere with names and addresses next to known vulnerability and that list is bound to leak sooner than later. See "My Number" (Japanese equivalent of social security numbers) leaks recently.
2. This makes for great phishing. All newspapers and TV channels have said you might receive notice from the government about security. Now you just have to send emails or letter claiming to be the government, saying "we have found your network to be vulnerable, please run this program to clean it up" and it's way more likely people will run your malware. FREE Advertisement provided by public funds!
I really don't have a rebuttal to your first point. The way people handle PII will always be an issue. My frame of mind comes from the fact that I'd rather some public entity privy to it than a private one like someone lower mentioning Google or Facebook.
The second point seems more like a problem with tech literacy than this program. There should be some way to differentiate a government email from a regular one. That and people should understand how to confirm it. Now I get it, I've had family members believe they have a virus because a pop up told them they did, but sitting down with them for 5 mins and telling them not to stopped that.
I'm curious, lower someone mentioned the idea that the government was already taking this kind of action. How do you respond to that?
The expectation of tipping at a restaurant exists to allow you to punish the employee for bad service over the course of a meal by leaving a 0% tip.
It doesn’t make any sense for a counter service restaurant or other such business that consists of a single interaction before paying, where if you receive bad service you already know that and can just say “actually never mind I’m going to a different place, cancel my order”.
I was once on a flight from Phuket to Bangkok, connecting back to my home in Tokyo. In such a case Thailand makes you pass immigration on the first flight, so Phuket, then your transit in BKK stays on the airside.
While taxiing to take of, the front landing gear broke so we had to go back to the Phuket airport (still airside) until another plan could be made available. Since we would not make the connection in BKK, they collected everyone's passport to stamp them with a temporary transit visa as we'd need to go to a hotel in Bangkok to wait for the next connection.
After 2-3h the new plane arrived, we flew to BKK and upon deplaning at the gate, a flight attendant came in holding a trash bag filled with all of our passport and proceeded to dump it on the floor and let the 100 or so passengers sift through the pile to find their own passport...
And yet hundreds of families are on waiting lists. If you don't get a spot, you have to go to a private facility which can easily cost more than one parent's monthly salary, or drop out of work until you get a spot, but then you're relegated even further down the waiting list.
Also, once you're in, you'll have to pick the kid before 6pm in most daycares which means you must leave the office at 5pm and since a lot of companies do not have flex time, that single hour will push you to a part-time position. Then the daycare will refuse to take your child if they have a fever of 36.8℃ and do regular temperature checks during the day and force you to drop your work and come pick the child straight away if they go above 36.8℃.
Unless you work close to home and have a very flexible and comprehending employer (or have grand parents close by and ready to help), even with a lucky spot in daycare it is extremely complicated to continue working.
Let's not even talk about elementary school where mandatory partake in time-consuming useless PTA activities basically assumes one of the parent does not work.
Fever is an abnormal elevation of body temperature that occurs as part of a specific biologic response that is mediated and controlled by the central nervous system. (See 'Pathogenesis' below.)
The temperature elevation that is considered "abnormal" depends upon the age of the child and the site of measurement. The temperature elevation that may prompt clinical investigation for infection depends upon the age of the child and the clinical circumstances (eg, immune deficiency, sickle cell disease, ill-appearance, etc); in most scenarios, the height of the fever is less important than other signs of serious illness (eg, irritability, meningismus) [35-38].
●In the otherwise healthy neonate (0 to 28 to 30 days of age) and young infant (one to three months of age), fever of concern generally is defined by rectal temperature ≥38.0°C (100.4°F). (See "Febrile infant (younger than 90 days of age): Definition of fever", section on 'Definition of fever'.)
●In children 3 to 36 months, fever generally is defined by rectal temperatures ranging from ≥38.0 to 39.0°C (100.4 to 102.2°F) and fever of concern by rectal temperatures ≥39.0°C (102.2°F) if there is no focus of infection on examination. (See "Fever without a source in children 3 to 36 months of age", section on 'Fever of concern'.)
●In older children and adults, fever may be defined by oral temperatures ranging from ≥37.8 to 39.4°C (100.0 to 103.0°F) and fever of concern by oral temperatures ≥39.5°C (103.1°F).
Oral thermometers average one half of a degree Celsius lower than rectal.
The above is pretty much straight out of UTD, as I am far too lazy to retype it for anyone’s benefit.
Probably a typo for 37.8°C, which is about the usual standard for child fever. Usually not worth calling the doctor until it’s like 39° or above, but sending a kid home with a mild fever might keep the rest of the class from catching a cold.
Not a typo and it's oral or armpit temperature. Japan is weird with their concept of "fever". When I get a flu shot, they ask me to take my temperature and I have to lie every time because they won't give me the shot if I tell them I read 37.4 C
Since when? We were taught that the normal temperature is 36.6. Even thermometers had such markings. and the 37.0 was marked red, because there the range of "something is wrong" started.
In the USA it's 98.6 F. I just converted it to Celsius and it comes to 37.0. It's interesting it's different in different places. (That's probably also why Europeans are so cold and snobbish... I kid, I kid)
And how does the postal worker delivering thousands of letters addressed to "UPS Headquarters ATLANTA" to a dude's apartment in Chicago not think it strange and report it?
Just an anecdotal data point, but, in the year and change I lived in Chicago (relatively recently) I experienced the local USPS quality of service to be... extraordinarily lacking.
They probably use their own services for important deliveries. Besides, if USPS don't report strange/dangerous USPS delivery activities, who else would?
I guess everybody who tried sending mail (including checks, apparently) to them and never got through would suspect something is wrong and report it...
Japan has a nice system: when you're not sure your issue is bad enough to call 119 (Japanese version of 911), you can call 7119 which will tell you if it's really an emergency and you need an ambulance or if you should just rest and see a doctor in the morning.
We have similar in the UK (NHS 111) - but because they're rather err on the side of caution, they usually refer you to A&E anyway.
They do seem to have some sway over the GPs though - Rather than A&E, they've refereed me to the Doctors instead. When I said it's impossible to get an appointment 111 told me to tell the Doctors they've referred me. At that point the Doctors seem to _have_ to see you the same day.
