March 20, 2011
We, the people of the Tokyo area, are still having aftershocks more than three to five times a day, and the situation with the nuclear power plants is growing worse than anticipated. Milk and spinach are not edible because of the radiation.
When the 9.0 magnitude earthquake happened in Japan, the large number of people trying to use mobile phones and e-mail made the systems difficult to access. People relied on TV, radio and social networks, like Twitter and Facebook for information. Social networks have been very important tools for relaying information in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Three days after the quake, mobile service became more reliable. All carriers, including DoCoMo, are providing “Who is Where” service, which allows you to search for missing individuals by entering a person’s phone number at a special site. You can register your number and status to let loved ones know “I’m safe “or “I’m in a refugee area”, etc. It is very useful. Also, there is an earthquake pre-alarm service so that you can be prepared for coming tremors.
Because of the earthquake and tsunami, the Tohoku area and part of the Chiba area, where Tokyo Disneyland is located, were highly damaged. As you all have read, the power plant in Fukushima broke and exploded. Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is the power plant for the Tokyo and Kanto regions, and blackouts happened in some areas. Even now, Tokyo Electric Power Company is scheduling blackouts for approximately three hours a day in selected areas. This had some terrible consequences. Unfortunately, some people died of car accidents, because some traffic lights at intersections were also out of order. Most items requiring electric power could not be used, including vending machines, parking lots, ATM POS systems, etc.
There have been a number of issues with the Mizuho Bank ATM network. The President of Mizuho Bank says this is due to human “error” and misuse of the system. For example, when a customer opens a Mizuho Bank account, they set a limit on the numbers of money transfer the account will accept within a certain timeframe. In the process of making donations in the aftermath of the earthquake, it appears many Mizuho Bank clients exceeded their preset transfer limits, leading to technical problems for the bank. I suppose it is possible that it is because people wanted to take out money to help out others in the Tohoku area, but details have not yet been disclosed. Mizuho is actually three banks that merged. Integrating those systems has been problematic, because there are many different contractors who are responsible for the integration. Thus cash has proved to be most important for people, just like in ancient days.
Related Article: Mobile and Social Payments for Charity- Making a Difference in Japan
Bio: Carl Atsushi Hirano
Widely known as the mastermind behind NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode technology, Carl Hirano was Managing Director of DoCoMo,com Inc. and led i-mode’s Strategic Alliances group until late 2006. While at DoCoMo, he spearheaded i-mode’s entry into the mobile commerce and mobile payments business and created a number of creative alliances with leading Japanese content providers, including Rakuten, Inc., a leading Japanese e-commerce company, and Tower Records Japan.
Today, Carl is Professor at Business Breakthrough University(Strategy) and President of NetStrategy, Inc. in Tokyo Japan. Also Carl serves as a Senior Advisor to Market Platform Dynamics (MPD) and works with MPD’s clients to devise innovative and profitable mobile and Internet-based strategies. He was a member of the Board Directors at Rakuten Auction, Inc. and Tower Records Inc.
Prior to joining DoCoMo, Carl was an executive at the Investment Banking Division of the Industrial Bank of Japan, Ltd.
Carl received his B.A. from the University of Tokyo.
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