What is Fujitsu, the Japanese IT company at centre of Post Office’s Horizon scandal

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Fujitsu — the Japanese tech agency behind the defective Horizon accounting software program at the centre of the British Post Office scandal — has been urged to take accountability for the faulty tech that will have led to the wrongful prosecution of a whole lot of workers.

The IT large is now the topic of an inquiry to determine whether or not it is culpable for the scandal that led to the prosecution of greater than 700 Post Office workers, accused of stealing after Horizon confirmed shortfalls of their branches’ accounts.

But it is not the first time Fujitsu’s software program has been at the centre of a public scandal.

Since its basis in 1935 in Japan’s Kawasaki, the company has produced every little thing from laptops and supercomputers to chips, software program, cellphones and residential home equipment. The company grew throughout Japan’s postwar financial growth, additional extending its providers to Western nations, together with the UK.

Fujitsu was the company behind Japan’s first ever pc – the FACOM 100.

“Fujitsu combines the power of IoT with digital technologies, AI, and network solutions to deliver hyperconnected business transformation,” a press release on the £23.8bn company’s web site reads.

Helmed by chief govt Takahito Tokita, the agency now caters to a rising quantity of Japanese corporations embracing digital workflows to maintain up with technological mobility.

Mr Tokita and a bunch of 49 executives are liable for the operations of the company.

Fujitsu is headquartered in Tokyo however operates by prolonged divisions and services in China, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, India, the UAE, the UK and the US.

Company’s popularity

Despite its lengthy and spectacular historical past, Fujitsu has been concerned in a string of scandals and software program glitches which have tarnished its popularity amongst bizarre residents in Japan.

In 2002, Fujitsu was one of three companies that got here hearth for glitches at ATMs belonging to at least one of Japan’s main banks, leading to 2.5 million delayed debits.

The company was blamed for a buying and selling loss of $300m (£234m )in 2005 after its Tokyo Stock Exchange software program was unable to cancel an incorrect order. Following a decade-long authorized battle, a court docket in Japan dominated in 2015 that the agency’s software program wasn’t legally liable.

Nearly 20 years later, the company’s software program supporting the operations of the inventory trade failed once more – inflicting the loss of a full day’s buying and selling in 2020.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused to the concerned parties because of a failure in the hardware we delivered,” a spokesperson for the company mentioned in a press release at the time. The incident prompted the company boss’s to take a 50 per cent pay minimize for 4 months in an act of public penance.

In June of 2023, at least 123 municipalities needed to droop the operation of a Fujitsu-based system to concern residence playing cards to holders of the nation’s ‘My Number’ ID card, in accordance with The Spectator.

A month previous to the incident machines in comfort shops issuing municipal certificates started malfunctioning.

“They are a national disgrace,” the report quoted one Japanese nationwide as saying.

Fujitsu’s previous dealings with UK authorities

Horizon was rolled out in 1999 and commenced reporting false money shortfalls at branches throughout the nation. The accusations tore individuals’s lives aside, with many dropping their jobs and houses.

Fujitsu mentioned it was dedicated to supporting an inquiry that has been underway since 2021. “The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering,” the agency mentioned in a press release this week.

The similar yr of Horizon’s implementation, the agency gained a £184m contract to develop software program to standardise case administration transactions throughout over 300 magistrates’ courts.

The software program – Libra – price 3 times greater than anticipated however struggled to supply even primary monetary info.

Fujitsu was additionally one of the 4 corporations tasked with digitising the NHS in 2004. But the British authorities terminated the contract in 2008 as a consequence of the company’s alleged failure to ship the promised product.

The Japanese company ultimately sued the NHS and gained the case in 2014, the BBC reported. The termination price the UK authorities £700m.

Despite the numerous controversies, Fujitsu was awarded practically over 190 public contracts value roughly £6.7bn in the previous decade, in accordance with analysts Tussell.

About 43 of these contracts had been nonetheless in operation, amounting to £3.6bn, which included the contract for Horizon. Fujistu’s income from its public sector contracts totalled £427m in the 2021-22 monetary yr, Tussell discovered.

The company was faraway from the British authorities’s record of most popular suppliers in 2022, nevertheless, it continued to nonetheless win authorities contracts by the common procurement course of.

Ministers tried to stop Fujitsu getting extra official work however this proved “impossible” regardless of its “woeful” efficiency, a Tory peer mentioned on Wednesday.

Lord Maude of Horsham, who served as Cabinet Office minister below David Cameron, mentioned procurement guidelines thwarted ministers’ efforts.

He mentioned if Fujitsu had “any sense of honour” it might swiftly make a big fee in the direction of the compensation of wrongly convicted subpostmasters.

The Independent has reached out to Fujitsu for remark.