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Japan's coronavirus vaccine booking system crashes after Salesforce outage

62 Comments
By Rocky Swift

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Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccines, has urged the public to be patient and pledged to take steps to streamline the booking process.

Cancel the Olympics and we can be patient. But don't insist on the Olympics when you can't dish out the vaccine.

63 ( +69 / -6 )

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccines, has urged the public to be patient

?

31 ( +33 / -2 )

System crashed - mondai nai just use the fax. Is pledge like trust me ?

21 ( +25 / -4 )

hahahahahahahahahahaha

I've used software from Saleforce before. I'm not surprised to read this news.

28 ( +28 / -0 )

taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccines, has urged the public to be patient

A couple of newspapers reported a short while ago the the Olympic horde would be vaccinated ahead of the cue. The article is on JT.

21 ( +22 / -1 )

A tent a bus some staff, outside a busy station, city hall drop in centre. Visit your local doctor, supermarkets car park. Why the need to make it complicated with a booking system. I know never happen has to be complicated.

20 ( +21 / -1 )

As always they will try to get public understanding

20 ( +21 / -1 )

The circus continues

29 ( +30 / -1 )

Taro Kono, the Vaccine Czar!

Anybody see those scenes at a clinic and an inoculation center (in a theater) in suburban Osaka yesterday?

Total Chaos. At the theater dozens of people gathered around the entrance to the building from 6am. No social distancing, no one seeming to know what was going on. By 9am they were told to go home. At the clinic in North Osaka, so maybe near Mino, a very long line of people snaked its way around the building and road out the front. Again no social distancing and some people there were quite elderly. God knows how they'll handle it when the real heat of summer comes. Anyway the head doctor at the clinic had to tell everyone in the line to go back home, due to the computer glitch, after some had waited a couple of hours resulting in more than one disgruntled man.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

How do they expect to vaccinate 126MM people when they can't even get the reservation system working. Not to mention the issues they're having in procuring, distributing and administering the vaccines. Over a year to prepare and this is where we are? And they want to host a world class event in the Olympics??? Talk about not being able walk and chew gum at the same time!

24 ( +24 / -0 )

Salesforce may not be the best system, but from my experience with Japanese made management systems, had they insisted on doing it themselves this would have been much much worse. If any of you have ever used Hitachi information systems, you will know what I'm talking about.

22 ( +22 / -0 )

The online system to book a vaccine crashed in many places including parts of Tokyo and the city of Minoh in Osaka Prefecture because of a global problem with U.S. cloud computing vendor Salesforce.com Inc, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Salesforce.com and WeWork show that the union of HR, real estate and IT is not ready for complex socioeconomic solutions in 2021. Corruption infects and you have algorithmic bias.

Typical for this vaccine rollout.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

I thought one consequence of Japan rolling out its vaccination program more slowly is that it would have learned from the mistakes other countries made. Apparently not.

23 ( +23 / -0 )

Should have out sourced the reservation system to Rakuten, with domestic servers who can handle the traffic. Salesforce.com hahaha hate to be the sales staff who did that deal, lots of bowing bout to go down.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

salesforce was down for a short bit in the morning. no big deal. move on.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

As always they will try to get public understanding

and they always get it! Maybe..THAT'S the problem.

15 ( +16 / -1 )

So which Diet member or bureaucrat is connected to this farce of a "contract" company?

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Is there anything the government have done about the pandemic that has not been plagued by mistakes, problems, confusion, etc? If the purpose is to vaccinate as many people as possible why make it unnecessarily difficult?

24 ( +27 / -3 )

A tent a bus some staff, outside a busy station, city hall drop in centre. Visit your local doctor, supermarkets car park. Why the need to make it complicated with a booking system.

Are problems not almost guaranteed if it's up to the recipient to take the initial action, whether calling by phone, going online, or visiting your local doctor? The activity is unpredictable in all situations like this.

Here where I live in Scotland, they used a different approach for over 65s and under 65s. Over 65s received a phone call from the local health centre telling them when and where to go for the vaccination. Under 65s received a letter telling when and where to go. In both situations, the initial action was taken by the providers and not the recipient. No online activity at all for the recipients. (That may have been prompted by a cock-up with an online booking service for flu vaccines last autumn. It seems they learned from their mistakes.)

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Incompetence 101 !!!

21 ( +23 / -2 )

Cancel the Olympic games? But the IOC and its corrupt members ( Bach, Coates,..) have decided that these games must go on without listening to the scientists or following the data that is emerging on a daily basis. Laughable!

11 ( +11 / -0 )

When I booked my first shot it went very smoothly, however, I do not understand why you have to make a separate booking for the second one, the doctor could easily just make an appointment for three weeks after the first.

20 ( +20 / -0 )

70 plus years ago they managed to put a bamboo spear in ever Woman and Childs hand in 6 months + training! But a needle in the arm in 2021 just too difficult.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Why does ANYTHING Covid related now start with somebody saying "Cancel The Olympics" Highly unlikely to happen unless 2-3 Sports Superpower countries decide not to send a delegation by the end of May.

Don't know how many times it has to be repeated, but the financial toll if Japan decide to cancel without the IOC in agreement is huge.

Host in a bubble - no spectators. Its going to make a GREAT TV event - Mark my words.

-16 ( +4 / -20 )

Salesforce chief technology officer Parker Harris said on Twitter that the company was experiencing a "major disruption", later updating to say services had been mostly restored

Pfff... Salesforce ? LOL . Hope thing will work tomorrow.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@theResident

I refuse to watch a single moment of it on TV out of principle.

And I won’t be buying any product made by an Olympic sponsor either.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

At first I thought name was funny, cloud service provider named salesforce?

But now it seemed very apt indeed, their sales team must be a force to reckon with

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Yet another excuse, what would the elderly do if they can't book an appointment? what ever happened to the old system where appointments are decided cards are mailed those who can come will and those who can't will call and resched. isn't that easier???

8 ( +8 / -0 )

First it was "no one will sell us vaccines". Then it was "we don't have enough vaccines"

Then it was "we don't have enough doctors to administer the vaccines"

Then it was "we have a logistics problem delivering the vaccines".

And now..."We have a crash".

What they have NOT had any issues with though is trying to hold the Olympics. You can bet your sweet rear, there will be no issues with that topic!

24 ( +24 / -0 )

Seems like it's just faster and more assured you'll get a vaccine if you become an Olympian. Has Japan produced an app related to Corona that actually works?

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Cancel the Olympics. Japan is punching above its weight. It doesn’t have its own platform to handle bookings for vaccine inoculation not to mention the vaccine itself. Why don’t we have our own vaccines?

I’m sure Japan can host the Olympics with hospitality and lots of Mario’s and mascots, but can Japan host under less than ideal conditions?

The people are suffering.

14 ( +14 / -0 )

You gotta be kidding me .........

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Services were significantly restored by 11:00 a.m. Most of the system failures were rectified by noon.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@theresident I agree with Stewart not a single minute of olympics on tv out of principle

7 ( +7 / -0 )

It is understandable that Japan could not produce its own vaccine, most countries could not.

However it is not understandable that Japan could not schedule vaccinations with in-house software. Kono is responsible for outsourcing to a US company. He has failed at every step as Chiapet clearly explained.

Why is he still in charge?

12 ( +12 / -0 )

What happened this time?

their precious and ultra modern fax system got broken?

What a farce.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I think it’s too covered by one of Murphy’s laws, therefore expectable.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Should have out sourced the reservation system to Rakuten

Rakuten would have used a low spec server that would crash from the word go and would

stay crashed through out. J-Companies investment in online infrastructure is dismal.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

With such a dynamic speed they would probably do even better in reverting back in time when people used pigeons to communicate in far distances.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Why is this so hard. Just take the vaccines to the local high schools, elementary schools in each prefecture and have the old fogies, wheeled in bused in or carted in to those locations for the shots. If the really want to make it simple why not have them go to Lawsons, or 7-11 you see many of those outlets.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

It seems that Japan is so fond of its “digitalization” so it is pushed everywhere. Let’s be honest, vaccination should be done on a massive scale without any reservations and IT system should be used for tracking of those who received vaccine. Simply as that, but it seems that asking governing jijis here to use logic is a way too much to ask.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

PERFECT! Now the rest of the past months' fumbling around can be blamed squarely on the shoulders of some GAIJIN software company!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Unbelievable, as much money we pay in taxes to this gov. They are so incompetent on so many levels.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I have to say that my experience with Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo has been all positive, At the end of April the online booking worked very well and very fast. (Friends who just tried the phone had a harder time.)

Today I had my first shot at Juntendo Hospital and the system was organized like clockwork, and I was really really impressed. My appointment was for between 2.15 and 2.30, and I was out by three o'clock, with my appointment for the second shot .

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I would like to add there was social distancing the whole time, including while waiting to go in, and hand sanitiser everywhere.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The Olympics are not the reason for the slow vaccine rollout in Japan.

Both Australia and South Korea are also going slowly, and they are not hosting the Olympics.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Really does feel like a 3rd world country at times, pretending to be a developed nation.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Really does feel like a 3rd world country at times, pretending to be a developed nation.

doesn't feel like it. That's what it is

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Why doesn't the government assign appointments based on age/ birthday and location. They should have that data. Miss your appointment and go to the back of the bus.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Wouldn't it be nice if foreign embassies in Japan were able to vaccinate its citizens? They helped out it citizens after the man-made Fukushima disaster when the Japanese were left hung out to dry by their own government.

Knowing the Japanese authorities, they'd probably scupper any ideas embassies might have.

https://news.yahoo.com/far-flung-u-citizens-clamour-110740130.html

2 ( +2 / -0 )

“Just put a doctor and a nurse in a van and drive around the ward and vaccinate people at home or at local schoolyards.”

Those that want the vax? Sure. I’ll wait till it’s out of trial phase

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Their cloud server literally put their heads in the cloud.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

A clear, unbiased take on the current situation in Japan:

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3133151/tokyo-olympics-amid-japans-lacklustre-covid-19-vaccination-efforts?utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_campaign=enlz-OpinionDaily&utm_content=20210513&tpcc=enlz-OpinionDaily&MCUID=5454420d57&MCCampaignID=59973119b0&MCAccountID=3775521f5f542047246d9c827&tc=5

It's on the SCMP

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is what happens when a nation is not putting all its focus and resources on vaccinations but rather splitting it with the Olympic Games. Where’s the horizontal server capacity and the high availability redundancy? No expense should be spared to ensure systems remain up to support this national emergency. This is prioritization 101.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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