1. What is the Year 2000 Problem?

The "Year 2000 Problem" (Y2K) is a result of there being software packages and computer devices which recognize the year as a last two-digits rather than a four-digit number. From January 1,2000, such devices will consider the year to be "00", causing disarray in any calculations relating to the date.
For financial institutions in particular, a significant proportion of operations relate to dates-including the management of loan due dates and recording of deposits and withdrawals. Any trouble relating to the settlement of accounts at one bank has the potential to propagate to other banks, adversely affecting all economic activities. In light of this concern, international awareness of Y2K has grown, and institutions such as BIS (the Bank for International Settlements) at the international level, and Japan' s Financial Supervisory Agency and Bank of Japan domestically, have set about checking up on the degree of Y2K preparedness of private financial institutions.
In addition, the Advanced Information and Telecommunications Society Promotion Headquarters, headed by the Japanese Prime Minister, has under the terms of the "Y2K Action Plan" (effected in September 1998), stipulated that all government ministries and agencies "request and oversee the implementation of general inspections of computer systems, including mock-up tests, and establish contingency plans, for all special public corporations under their control". 00.11.29

2. The organized response of the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) to Y2K

The Development Bank of Japan was established on October 1, 1999 by consolidating the Japan Development Bank and the Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance Public Corporation, also known as North-East Finance of Japan. It aims to contribute to the development of Japanese society and economy, in placing emphasis on creation of self-reliant regions, enhancement of quality of life, and economic revitalization and sustainable development through provision of long-term financing and other services that complement commercial banks' activities.
Although DBJ is a policy-based finance institution, it carries out financial activities in the same manner as a private financial institution and views Y2K as a serious organizational threat. Its two forerunners had been taking necessary measures to provide support for a full-blown Y2K problem response, such as establishing the deputy-governor-led "Year 2000 Problem Committee". This committee, which has been carried over to the new organization, clarifies the Y2K review structure within the Bank, while initiating probes into risk items and putting in place various response provisions.

3. System response standing

The Bank has duly invested manpower and resources to make its computer systems Y2K compliant, targeting host computers, personal computers and networks.
Y2K compliance testing and the updating of work on system clusters applied to key operations was completed in July 1999. At the time of this writing, the final check has already been completed.

4. Contingency plan

The Bank has a contingency plan that thoroughly reviews systems to expose any risk areas in the case of a Y2K problem, and works toward containing any risk resulting from such an occurrence to an absolute minimum, while maintaining core DBJ operations. The goal is for rapid response capabilities to restore any problem areas to service, thereby keeping damage to a minimum. The contingency plan was completed in June 1999 and has been approved by the board of directors.
Included in the plan, which comprehensively covers potential emergency situations, are preemptive response provisions, organizational details of the response headquarters, trigger date response provisions, initial response details, and the procedure for full system recovery. After the consolidation, the two organizations' contingency plans were integrated into a unified plan for the Bank. A working team drawn from departments which are in charge of areas that are particularly sensitive to Y2K issues was established as a subordinate organization to the committee to identify risk scenarios for each section and work out operational fallback and risk reduction provisions for each such risk scenario. All of its findings are reported back to the committee.
At present, when there remains less than a month before the arrival of the year 2000, we have finalized the detailed list of preventive procedures to be carried out on the critical trigger day and countermeasures for any emergency cases, with taking related external parties' responsiveness for Y2K problems into account. The plan was reported to the board of directors and employees have been thoroughly informed.

5. Public availability of information

The Y2K response of the Bank will be made available on the Web page on a continual basis.

While the Bank is making every effort to respond to the Year 2000 Problem, the publicly available information does not oblige the Bank to any promise, guarantee or duty whatsoever, nor does it represent a waiver of any of the bank's titles.