[tz] time and cost to reprogram computers for DST in Japan

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Fri Aug 17 07:53:29 UTC 2018


Earlier this week Mainichi Japan published an article describing some criticism 
of reintroducing DST to Japan. My favorite quote was this one, abut the time and 
cost to reprogram computers:

"The biggest hurdle in Japan to putting daylight saving time in place is the 
cost and workload required to adjust computer systems. Professor Tetsutaro 
Uehara of Ritsumeikan University, a specialist in information systems, estimates 
that it would take about four years and hundreds of billions of yen to do just that.

"'Japan is a country with advanced information technology systems, and computers 
with timing functions are used everywhere. Many are programmed with Japan time 
based on the international standard time,' pointed out Uehara. 'Software would 
have to be rewritten to introduce summer time. Such work would take about four 
years and cost hundreds of billions of yen. It is crazy to attempt to put it in 
place by the 2020 Games,' said the bewildered professor."

My source:

Nakagawa S, Hatta K. Daylight saving time causes more trouble than benefits, say 
critics. The Mainichi. 2018-08-12. 
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180812/p2a/00m/0na/010000c


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