Data blunders put Japan's after-work boozing culture in the spotlight

As many people know, after-work drinks can occasionally get embarrassingly out of hand. But for two government employees in Japan, a night on the tiles resulted in the loss of files containing information about an ongoing drug-smuggling investigation.

Booze-fuelled blunders involving delicate personal data have sparked debate in Japan over alcohol's place in its work culture, as well as the country's stubbornly analogue bureaucracy.

'Astonishing blunder'

During a night out with colleagues this month, a Japanese finance ministry employee drank nine glasses of beer over a five-hour session and then lost a bag containing the personal data of people suspected of drug smuggling.

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The lost files included the names and addresses of 187 suspected drug smugglers and recipients of cannabis seeds. The bag also contained business laptops.

It may sound like an "astonishing blunder", said CNN, but it's "not the first time something like this has happened". In 2022, another government employee lost a USB flash drive containing the personal details of every resident of the city of Amagasaki after boozing with colleagues and then falling asleep on the street. When he woke up, the bag containing the flash drive had vanished.

The drive held the names, dates of birth and addresses of more than 450,000 people and sensitive information including tax details, bank account numbers and those households receiving childcare payments and other public assistance. Police officers were able to retrieve the USB drive when the bag was found outside an apartment building.

'Chugging beer'

Alcohol has "been seen as a social lubricant" in Japan for thousands of years, said the BBC. Business deals and difficult issues are often "discussed over bottles of beer and sake", because it's thought that alcohol creates "a more relaxed environment for such discussions".

It's not unusual to see groups of men in business suits "chugging beer" late into the evening or "slumped in the middle of the street" following "marathon drinking sessions" that are designed to "secure deals" and "curry favour in the workplace", said CNN.

When you "combine that drinking culture" with Japan's "particularly old-fashioned preference" for "analogue technologies" over cloud storage, there's an inevitable danger of sensitive data "going astray".

The nation's "bureaucratic systems" are "famously slow to change". They rely on technologies and practices that are "obsolete" in many other parts of the world, favouring the use of hard drives, paper documents and "other easily-lost items".

Staying sober is not always enough to mitigate the risk. Last April, officials in Aichi prefecture issued an apology after a gust of wind blew away paper files that were being transported on a trolley. "Frantic efforts" ensued to gather up "reams of paper strewn across the road by the wind", said AFP, but three sheets were lost, containing personal data relating to 121 households.