Suga apologizes for glitch in Japan's COVID-19 contact-tracing app

For 5 months the android tracing app hasn't been working. You couldn't make it up.

From the beginning a lot of people were against the app for many different reason, some valid and some not so much, so the least that the government had to do is to make sure it was working without problems.

Now it is clear that the app has been useless for a lot of people for months, that is unthinkable for any kind of software intended for health services. How hard was to have a system to check if the thing was working properly? If this is a reflection of the best efforts that Japan can come up for the development of technology then the future looks quite dark.

Such a glitch can cost lives.

Suga apologizes for glitch in Japan's COVID-19 contact-tracing app

Glitches are not in contact tracing app, it's in government policy in handling pandemic.

A failure when you needed it the most to work. Kinda like the LDP in this crisis.

This tracing app is nonsens and a waste of time!

Better hurry up with the vaccine!

Nah, it wasn't a "glitch". It was purposely set up that way to make people who downloaded and used the app, to feel safe, because they never got any alerts, and those in charge probably told those who tried to upload data, "We are working on it" "Don't worry!" "Your information was uploaded!"

Ironic that this comes on the heels of the suspected "increase" of cases walking around Tokyo compared to last summer BEFORE the app came out!

If i can get a yen for every time Suga has apology since he had taken office till the end of his term, i would probably be able to pay my rent. Stop apologizing and show me some backbone instead. Punish them and replace them with better people suitable for the job.

Kids in their bedrooms make awesome apps that sell like mad and work.

Governments can’t do that. It’s inherently impossible for any government body to roll out a simple scheme without screwing it up and wasting a lot of our money. A provable fact.

Better hurry up 

Japan? You got to be kidding right?

Another apology that seems to be all this government is doing. Time for them to step down and get out I guess Suga will apologize tomorrow for failing to keep his promise to have the covid-19 under control in 1 month https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Japan-PM-declares-emergency-vows-to-control-COVID-in-month

Or he will pretend he never made the promise and hope nobody will remember.

Let me get this straight.

25 million app users didn’t notice anything strange.

More importantly, in the agency in charge of making the app not one underling/drone thought to check it. In nearly half a year? I guess the faxes were properly hanko-ed.

I disabled that app. Big brother Apple and Google spy on my data already.

Has anyone else used the app? I downloaded it for iPhone when I arrived last November and the app was extremely faulty. Every time I would open the app I would need to re-register, so highly doubtful I would have received any push notifications of coming into contact with someone when the app wasn't open, which might explain why I never had a single encounter.

Japan is the best a apologizing for anything all talk no action

Give it a big bow and a gomenasai and all is well, I love Japan

Oh Suga, can you do anything right?

They never took responsibility harshly for the Tokyo Stocks Exchange digital crash.

An apology with no actual action, again here!

@zoroto wasn't the app made by microsoft?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/19/21296603/japan-covid-19-contact-tracking-app-cocoa-released well.. yes. the app is made by Microsoft

Expecting central government to do anything properly is foolish.

At least with a free market you can take your business elsewhere far more easily when a producer fails you.

Not his fault. But, yes, these contact tracing apps are useless generally speaking.

One "glitch"?! Something got lost here in the translation somewhere. How about a groundhog-day edition "fubar" for starters?

Not only was this a massive failure for a nation that cannot embrace modern technology in daily life (they make a lot of it, then try to fax the instructions to other countries), but in a land where people need to be told what to do and reassured constantly about how they are liked or if in danger, many took this app as the placebo it was and probably did what many do when they get a flu shot or the like here -- believe they are safe and can stop being cautious. I would go so far as to say the app probably did far more harm than good, and allowed people who might not have otherwise been infected to become infected.