If Anna Matsumoto had listened to her teachers, she would have kept her inquisitive mind to herself ¡ª asking questions, they told her, interrupted class. And when, at age 15, she had to choose a course of study in her Japanese high school, she would have avoided science, a track that her male teachers said was difficult for girls.
Instead, Matsumoto plans to become an engineer. Japan could use a lot more young women like her.
Despite its tech-savvy image and economic heft, the country is a digital laggard, with a traditional paperbound office culture where fax machines and personal seals known as hanko remain common. The pandemic has reinforced the urgent need to modernize, accelerating a digital transformation effort promoted by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, including the opening Wednesday of a new Digital Agency intended to improve the government¡¯s notoriously balky online services.
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