Microsoft outage has "major impact" in Japan
Justin McCurryThe Microsoft outage has caused disruption among companies and government ministries in Japan, forcing staff to turn to analogue methods to distribute information and contact clients, our colleague Justin McCurry reports from Tokyo.
The digital minister, ToshiharuFurukawa, said the government’s email services had become unavailable and that it would temporarily use other formats, including text messaging, as an “emergency measure”.
The economy, trade and industry minister, RyoseiAkazawa, conceded that the disruption had had a “major impact,” on the world’s fourth-biggest economy. “Since this software is used by a vast number of people, we will closely monitor the situation and take every possible measure to address it,” he said, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
The realisation that something was wrong hit as soon as employees tried to log on this morning, with social media flooded with complaints from users who were unable to check work emails.
The government confirmed the outage had disrupted a shared network the digital agency uses to send information to ministries and other official bodies.
The chaos also seeped into the private sector. The shipping firm SagawaExpress, which uses Outlook, said it was unable to accept online reservations for its hands-free luggage service at airports and train stations, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Taisho, a major pharmaceutical company, said it was having to handle orders by phone.
Outlook is also used by Japan’s defence ministry and the cabinet office, which said it would pin notices on bulletin boards to notify media organisations of upcoming press conferences.
The meteorological agency said it does not use Microsoft to issue special weather and earthquake warnings to local governments.