Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on August 6th, 2023. In today’s news, the Japanese government has announced plans to issue a new health insurance certificate, while the Toyota Yaris series has secured the top spot in car sales for the second consecutive month.

First, let’s talk about the Japanese government’s decision regarding health insurance. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a press conference on August 4th, where he stated that the current plan to abolish the traditional health insurance card in favor of integrating it into the My Number Card will remain unchanged. However, instead of completely eliminating the health insurance certificate, the government will issue a new document similar to the current certificate to confirm insurance eligibility. This change is expected to take place in the autumn of 2024.

Moving on to automotive news, the Toyota Yaris series has once again claimed the top spot in car sales for the month of July. According to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association, the Yaris series, including both registered and light motor vehicles, secured the overall first position for the second consecutive month. This achievement highlights the popularity and demand for Toyota’s compact cars.

Next, we turn our attention to cybersecurity. The Cabinet Cybersecurity Center (NISC) announced on August 4th that they had experienced a security breach. The breach involved unauthorized access to their email systems, resulting in the potential leakage of some email data, including personal information. The incident is believed to have occurred over an eight-month period, highlighting the importance of robust cybersecurity measures.

Shifting gears, the city of Kadoma in Osaka Prefecture has initiated a pilot program to explore the use of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, in their municipal office operations. The program aims to utilize ChatGPT for tasks such as document summarization, translation, and generating ideas for various types of written content. The city will carefully consider factors such as personal data protection and copyright before deciding whether to fully implement the technology.

In the tech industry, Amazon.com has reported double-digit revenue growth in their latest financial results. For the second quarter of 2023, the company’s net sales increased by 11% to $134.38 billion, while operating income more than doubled to $7.68 billion. Despite a slight slowdown in the growth of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company remains confident in its overall revenue growth and stability.

OpenAI has also made updates to its ChatGPT platform. The AI research organization announced new features to be added within the next week, including the ability to display example sentences and support for uploading multiple files. These enhancements aim to improve the user experience and expand the capabilities of ChatGPT.

Lastly, we have a concerning development in the realm of cybersecurity. Malicious actors are increasingly exploiting YouTube as a platform for malware attacks. They hijack YouTube channels and use them as a means to distribute malware. This trend has been on the rise since the latter half of 2022, posing risks to users who unsuspectingly encounter infected content on the popular video-sharing platform.

That’s all for today’s news from TotemoTech. Stay tuned for more updates on the latest tech happenings. Thank you for listening! And that’s all for today’s news. Thanks for listening to TotemoTech.

Keywords - japan, tech, news