Japan Cybersecurity Minister Admits He Has Never Used Computer

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You will face no cyber security issues if you have no computer.

Yoshitaka Sakurada is in charge of revising Japan’s cybersecurity laws. (Kyodo News/AP)

The Japanese Cyber Security Minister admitted in Japanese Parliament on November 14th that he had never used a computer.

Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, is the deputy chief of the government’s cyber security strategy office, as well as the minister of the Olympic and Paralympic games that Tokyo will host in 2020.

He caused astonishment by admitting that in his professional life, the Cyber Security Minister had never used a computer and he also appeared confused by the concept of a USB drive.

“Since the age of 25, I have instructed my employees and secretaries, so I don’t use computers myself,” he said in response to an opposition question, according to local media.

He also appeared visibly confused when he was asked if USB drives were in use at Japanese nuclear facilities.

His comments were met with disbelief by the opposition.

Sakurada said that he recognized that “firmly carrying out cybersecurity from a citizen’s standpoint” was part of his job.

“It’s unbelievable that someone who has not touched computers is responsible for cyber security policies,” said opposition lawmaker Masato Imai.

When he was asked how a person who is in charge of cyber security can lack any and all computer skills, Sakurada said that policy was decided broadly by a number of people in his office and the national government, and he was confident there would be no problems.

Naturally, there were responses on Twitter. Some of them humorous.

“Doesn’t he feel ashamed?” wrote one Twitter user. “Today any company president uses a PC. He doesn’t even know what a USB is. Holy cow.”

“If a hacker targets this Minister Sakurada, they wouldn’t be able to steal any information. Indeed it might be the strongest kind of security!”

He has also caused raising of eyebrows when he addressed another parliamentary committee. The minister said that the Olympics would cost Japan 1,500 yen ($13.21) instead of 150 billion yen ($1.32 billion).

He also blamed his mistakes on the opposition not submitting their questions in advance, although actually had done so. Furthermore, during news conferences for the Olympics one of his most frequent answers is “I don’t know.”

Earlier in November, he claimed to know nothing about plans for North Korea’s sports minister to attend a meeting in Tokyo at the end of the month, in violation of a ban on the regime’s officials entering Japan. He also suggested that he had no knowledge of Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, asking North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un to allow his country’s athletes to take part in the 2020 games.

Sakurada has been in office since October, during a cabinet re-shuffle, after the re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He has not yet come to the point of blaming cyber attacks on Russia or China, but it could possibly be just a matter of time.

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