Warnings From Microsoft and Unicode: Japan Could Suffer A Y2K-style Crisis In 2019

Japan could be on the verge of a crisis in the style of Y2K, 19 years after the fact.

It is expected that Emperor Akihito of Japan will abdicate to the throne on April 30, 2019, giving way to his son Naruhito to become emperor. That's fine for Naruhito and the real observers, but it's not so good for the tech industry.

According to The Guardian, the Japanese calendar counts since the coronation of a new emperor. Akihito took the throne in January 1989. Not only was the beginning of the Heisei era, but it was also the beginning of the Internet as we know it. That's where the problem lies. Technology companies have to prepare for the Japanese calendar to change for the first time in their existence, which raises concerns of a Y2K-style calendar problem that could lead to a collapse of the Internet and chaos in the application.

More details:

•     Microsoft warned about this in April and noted that "most of the software has not been tested to ensure it behaves with an additional era."
•     Unicode has an even bigger problem. You can not even prepare for the new date until you know the character, but that will not be released until February. "UTC can not afford to make any mistakes here, nor can * guess * and launch the code on time," Unicode wrote earlier this month.

In short, they are doing what they can, but it may not be enough to avoid the consequences of a millennium error. Does anyone want to buy a preparation kit for the year 2000 from Japan?