These people are a circus...

 Gov't pledges to fix embarrassing vaccine booking system flaw

TOKYO

 - The Japanese government said Tuesday it will fix an embarrassing COVID-19 vaccine booking system fault that allowed reservations to be made using nonexistent application numbers.

The announcement came a day after the government started accepting online bookings for elderly people to receive shots at large Self Defense Forces-staffed vaccination centers in Tokyo and Osaka as it attempts to ramp up its inoculation rollout amid a fourth wave of infections.

The state-run booking system for the vaccination center in Tokyo was found to accept municipality code numbers and vaccination ticket numbers that were not issued by respective authorities.

"We plan on fixing (the system) so we can confirm the inputted data are genuine information," Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said at a press conference.

"It would have been better if we had fixed it from the start," the minister said, adding that the ministry does not plan to conduct a large system overhaul.