Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, was named to the two
posts last month by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, having never held
a cabinet position before during his 22 years in parliament.
The minister made the admission at a parliamentary committee
meeting on Wednesday when asked by an opposition lawmaker if he
was computer literate.
"I've been independent since I was 25 and have always directed
my staff and secretaries to do that kind of thing," Sakurada
replied. "I've never used a computer!"
Sakurada had said that he recognized that "firmly carrying out
cybersecurity from a citizen's standpoint" was part of his job.
When asked by the lawmaker how someone lacking computer skills
could be in charge of cybersecurity, Sakurada said policy was
decided broadly by a number of people in his office and the
national government, and he was confident there would be no
problems.
Sakurada's responses in parliament and news conferences have
drawn criticism before. Addressing another parliamentary
committee, the minister had slipped up by saying the Olympics
would cost Japan 1,500 yen ($13.21) instead of 150 billion yen
($1.32 billion).
He has also blamed his mistakes on the opposition not submitting
questions in advance, although they had, and during news
conferences for the Olympics he has often simply answered: "I
don't know".
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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