Re: [tlug] OT: Japans digitilization

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

Hi Chris,


On 28/9/2020 12:44 pm, Christian Horn wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 08:04:26PM +0800, Raymond Wan wrote:
> > [..]
> > Here (sorry, you opened a can of worms about the things here that irk
> > me), they forced us to use 2FA for banking.  Then, they had this
> > brilliant idea to merge it with our phones for "convenience".
> > Really...I think they just wanted to not pay for a 2FA token device,
> > even though I'm happy to pay for it...  So, previously, I can leave
> > the hardware token safely locked at home.  But now, one has to carry
> > it around.  Imagine the stress of losing one's phone!
>
> Reminds me of my German bank, who tries to persuade customers into
> mobile-tan, so sending a SMS for verification to you phone.  Just that
> they only accept German phone numbers for that.
>
> For 2FA, they also offer what they call chipTAN, which is quite nice:
> you have a small device which has 7 brightness sensors, and insert your
> banking card into the device.
> The bank website is then displaying an animated gif on the screen, as
> you hover that animation with the device, informations about for
> example a planned transaction are transferred into the device.  The
> device then shows the details like destination bank account of the
> planned transfer on it's LED display, and after you verified it you
> get a TAN which you use on the website.
> So the device is not smarter than it needs to be, and can be used
> everywhere.


That does sound neat and way beyond what I've seen here...a 
supposedly financial city.

Actually, about the latest news you brought up about fax 
machines and hanko's, one thing that the Japanese government 
shouldn't ignore is the big elephant in the room.  And that 
is Japan's ageing population.

If you're going to bring a new technology in, it needs to be 
easy enough so that you don't confuse a large segment of the 
population.  Otherwise, whatever Helpline you set up will be 
inundated with calls...  The prime minister is probably 
(hopefully??) surrounded by tech savvy advisors; the average 
elderly person in Japan may not be.

And that's the "beauty" of hanko's...  It's tangible and 
easily understood.  Heck, even a clueless foreigner like me 
understood what it was when I first arrived in Japan [1]. 
Surely the young people think they're in some backwards 
country, but if the population continues to age at the 
current rate, hanko's are the least of their worries...

Ray

[1]  Actually, what baffled me was it seemed like the ink in 
the ink pad for hanko's appear to be endless.  How do they 
do that?  :-P