Yorozuya IT / English
Illustrated fixes for everyday tech problems, Japanese text, and dev headaches
Yorozuya (万屋) is the Japanese word for a “jack-of-all-trades” shop. We write short, diagram-first guides for everyday IT problems (Wi-Fi, full phones, lost two-factor codes, slow laptops) and for the problems that appear when Japanese data and systems meet the rest of the world: garbled CSVs, broken ZIP filenames, missing fonts, blocked payments, and more.
Everyday Tech Fixes
Wi-Fi that says connected but is not, a full phone, a lost authenticator, a slow laptop: step-by-step fixes with a diagram, written from real IT support work.
Everyday Tech Fixes: Start Here (Find Your Problem in 30 Seconds)
A one-page index of our step-by-step guides for everyday tech problems: Wi-Fi, phones, laptops, email, accounts and backups. Find your symptom, open the guide, and save the cheat sheet for next time.
I Clicked a Phishing Link: What to Do in the First Hour
Clicking a bad link is common and usually recoverable. What you do next depends on what happened: you only clicked, you entered a password, or you shared payment details or installed something.
Laptop Slow After an Hour? Check Memory Before You Blame the Computer
A laptop that is fast at start-up but crawls after an hour is usually running out of memory, not dying. Chrome tabs, one leaking app, and startup programs are the usual suspects. Here is how to find which.
Email Not Arriving? Bounce Message, Spam Folder, or Server: How to Find Out Where It Went
When an important email does not arrive, ask one question first: did a bounce message come back? The answer tells you whether to fix the address, look in spam, or check the sending domain's settings.
Deleted a Photo on Your Phone and It Vanished Everywhere? Sync Is Not a Backup
iCloud Photos, Google Photos, Dropbox, and OneDrive mirror your files. Delete one and the delete spreads. Here is how to recover what you just lost, and how a real backup differs.
iPhone Photos Won't Open on Windows? What HEIC Is and Three Ways to Fix It
iPhones save photos as HEIC files by default. They are small and good quality, but some Windows programs and websites cannot open them. Here are three fixes: on the computer, on the iPhone, and during transfer.
New Phone, Lost Your Authenticator Codes? Avoid the Lockout (and What to Do If You're Already Locked Out)
Authenticator codes live on your phone, not in your account. Switch phones without moving them and you can be locked out of your own email. Here is the safe order, and the recovery path if it is too late.
Printer Says Offline But Is Turned On? Fix It Step by Step on Windows and Mac
When a printer shows Offline, the printer is usually fine. The computer lost track of it, a print job is stuck, or the printer changed its address. Work from the printer outward with five checks.
Phone Battery Draining Fast? Find What Is Using It Before You Buy a New Phone
A battery that suddenly drains is usually one of three things: an app working in the background, a bright screen or weak signal, or a battery that has aged. The battery screen in Settings tells you which.
iPhone or Android Storage Full? What to Delete First (Without Losing Photos)
A 'Storage Full' warning makes people delete at random, often their photos. Look at what is actually using the space first. Here is the order that frees the most room with the least risk.
No Sound on Zoom or Teams? Or Nobody Can Hear You? Check Output and Input Separately
Audio problems on video calls are really two different problems: you cannot hear them (output), or they cannot hear you (input). Decide which one you have, then check the right device in the right place.
Wi-Fi Connected but No Internet? Test One Link at a Time to Find the Break
Full Wi-Fi bars do not mean you are online. Wi-Fi is only the hop from your device to your router. Four quick tests show whether the problem is your device, your router, your provider, or DNS.
Start a Password Manager in 20 Minutes: Fix Your 10 Most Important Accounts First
You do not need to move every account today. Pick a password manager, set a strong master passphrase, and fix your ten most important accounts first. That removes most of the risk in about twenty minutes.
Bluetooth Headphones Won't Connect? Fix Pairing Problems in Five Steps
Headphones that refuse to pair or keep connecting to the wrong device are usually a pairing record problem, not a broken product. Work through five steps in order, from charging to a clean re-pair.
Cyber News Explained
This week's major cyberattacks in the US and Europe, explained with diagrams: what happened, why it worked, and what you can do.
Windows 10 Security Updates Now Run to October 2027: How to Enrol, and What to Do Before They End
Microsoft quietly extended consumer Extended Security Updates for Windows 10 by a year, to 12 October 2027. Who qualifies, the three ways to enrol, what ESU does not cover, and a simple decision path for PCs that cannot run Windows 11.
cPGuard Update Hijack: When a Security Tool's Own Update Delivers the Backdoor
On November 2, attackers used compromised credentials to push fake updates of the cPGuard server security suite to thousands of Linux servers. A diagram of the supply-chain attack, what the script collected, and exactly what to rotate.
The Freezer Hacks: How a Cyberattack on a Refrigeration Supplier Reached French Supermarkets and Blood Banks
In early November, attackers changed temperature and defrost settings on refrigeration controllers in Europe, including at three French blood-bank sites. A diagram of how a supplier compromise turns into a warm freezer, and what saved the plasma.
Marathon Health Breach: How a Fake IT Worker Led to Data Exposure for Nearly 5.7 Million People
An attacker posing as an IT worker got an employee's credentials and exported data from a cloud application. A diagram of the attack chain and the four controls that could have stopped it, for individuals and for IT teams.
UK Cyber Chief Warns of AI-Powered Ransomware by 2028: What Is Actually Changing
The UK's NCSC says AI-powered malware is highly likely in a ransomware attack on critical infrastructure by 2028, and warns of an unprecedented rise in incidents. What AI changes, what it does not, and which defenses still matter.
Synology NAS Ransomware: Attackers Are Exploiting a Flaw Patched in 2024 (Check Your DSM Now)
Synology warned on October 29 that ransomware is hitting NAS devices running outdated DSM, through a flaw it fixed in December 2024. A patch-gap diagram, a five-minute checklist, and what to do if your files are already encrypted.
EU Rules for Builders
What EU laws and platform policies mean in practice for developers, small online shops, and website owners.
EU AI Act After the Digital Omnibus: What Still Applies Now, and What Moved to 2027–2028
The AI Act's high-risk deadline slipped to December 2027, but not everything was delayed. A plain-English calendar of what already applies, what moves, and what a small team using or building AI tools should check this quarter.
Will EU Cookie Banners Disappear? What the Digital Omnibus Council Position Really Changes (November 2026)
EU governments agreed their position on cookie rules on 21 October 2026. Browser consent signals were dropped, a four-month wait after a refusal was added, and some analytics and contextual ad measurement would need no consent. None of it is law yet. What to keep and what to prepare.
E-Invoicing in Europe: Deadlines by Country (2026–2029) and What Small Businesses and Developers Need to Do
Belgium, Poland, France, and Germany are switching B2B invoicing to structured e-invoices, with Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands following. A country-by-country calendar, the three formats you will meet, and how to tell whether a rule applies to you.
Software Is Now a “Product” in the EU: What the New Product Liability Directive Means from 9 December 2026
From 9 December 2026 the EU's new Product Liability Directive treats software, apps, and AI systems as products with no-fault liability, and missing security updates can count as a defect. Who is covered, what damage counts, and a practical checklist for small software teams.
UK Online Safety Act for Small Websites and Forums: Are You in Scope, and What Do You Actually Have to Do?
The Online Safety Act reaches small forums, community sites, and non-UK services with UK users. A plain-English checklist: how to tell if you are in scope, which risk assessments Ofcom expects, what the penalties are, and where small low-risk services can relax.
AdSense Ads for Visitors in the EU, UK, and Switzerland: Do You Need a Consent Banner?
If your site shows Google ads to visitors in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, Google requires a certified consent management platform. What the rule says, what happens without one, and how to check your setup in a few minutes.
EU Cyber Resilience Act Reporting Since September 2026: What Developers and Product Teams Must Do
The Cyber Resilience Act's reporting duty has applied since 11 September 2026, ahead of the rest of the law in December 2027. The 24-hour, 72-hour, and 14-day clocks, who must report, and a practical starter checklist.
EU Data Act in Practice: Switching Cloud Providers Gets Free in January 2027, and Your Devices' Data Becomes Yours
The Data Act already gives users access to the data their connected devices generate. Since 12 September 2026, new devices must offer access by design, and from 12 January 2027 cloud providers cannot charge switching fees. A timeline and a practical checklist for customers, developers, and device makers.
EU Digital Identity Wallet Arrives by End of 2026: What Site Owners and Developers Should Know
Every EU member state must offer a digital identity wallet by the end of 2026, and regulated businesses and very large platforms must accept it a year later. How selective disclosure works, who must accept the wallet, and how to prepare if your site checks age or identity.
European Accessibility Act for Small Online Shops: Ten Checks You Can Run This Week
The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 2025 and reaches most online shops selling to EU consumers, wherever the shop is based. A plain-language scope check, a ten-point WCAG-based test you can run yourself, and what an accessibility statement needs.
NIS2 for Small Suppliers: The Security Questions Your EU Customers Will Ask You
NIS2 puts security duties on essential and important entities, and those duties flow down to their suppliers through contracts and questionnaires. Where member states stand in 2026, what customers typically ask, and a practical first-month plan for a small company.
Japanese Text & Encoding
Garbled CSVs, broken ZIP filenames, Shift_JIS vs UTF-8, and other text problems that show up whenever Japanese data crosses systems.
Excel Opens Your CSV in One Column? Semicolons, Decimal Commas, and European Locales
A CSV that looks perfect in the US lands in one column on a German, French, or Italian PC. Excel splits files on the regional list separator, which is a semicolon in many European locales. How to open, write, and share CSVs that work on both sides.
ä Instead of ä? Fixing Garbled Umlauts, é, ß, and € in Websites, CSVs, and Databases
If German, French, Nordic, or Polish text shows up as ä, é, or €, UTF-8 is being read as Windows-1252 or Latin-1. A decoder chart, the places to check, and how to repair damaged text.
Git Shows Übung.txt as Deleted and Untracked on macOS: Fixing Umlaut Filenames with core.precomposeunicode
A repository from Linux or Windows shows umlaut, accent, or kana filenames as both deleted and untracked on a Mac. The cause is Unicode normalization. Two Git settings fix it, plus a script to find names that are not in composed form.
Why Japanese Text in a CSV Looks Garbled in Excel (and the Fix That Sticks)
Your CSV looks perfect in a text editor but turns into 譌･譛ｬ隱 in Excel. Here is why Excel guesses wrong, how to open the file correctly, and how to export CSVs that never break.
Python UnicodeDecodeError on Japanese Files: How to Tell Shift_JIS from UTF-8
'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x83 almost always means a Shift_JIS (CP932) file. Learn to recognize the byte patterns, pick the right encoding, and detect it safely instead of guessing.
Shift_JIS vs CP932: Why ～ Becomes ? and Python Raises UnicodeEncodeError
Shift_JIS and CP932 (Windows-31J) are not the same encoding. The wave dash, minus sign, and circled numbers expose the difference. A short guide to which codec to use and how to avoid lossy conversions.
Japanese Text That Looks Identical but Won't Match: NFC, NFD, and Half-Width Characters
Two strings of Japanese text can look the same and still compare as unequal. Learn what NFC, NFD, and NFKC do to voiced kana and half-width characters, with Python examples for search keys and filenames.
Garbled Japanese Filenames After Unzipping: Why It Happens and How to Fix It
A ZIP made on a Japanese Windows PC extracts as ô·û{îΩ.txt on a Mac or Linux box. ZIP has no reliable filename encoding. Here is how to read the names correctly and how to make ZIPs that travel.
Dev & Infrastructure
Server, container, and database problems that appear when your app has to handle Japanese text.
MySQL “Incorrect string value” for Emoji, Umlauts, or Japanese: Fix It with utf8mb4 (and Avoid the Collation Traps)
Error 1366 'Incorrect string value' means the column or the connection cannot hold the bytes you sent. How to read the hex in the message, convert tables to utf8mb4 safely, and handle the 'Unknown collation utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci' error when moving between MySQL and MariaDB.
My Scheduled Job Ran Twice (or Not at All) When the Clocks Changed: Fixing Daylight Saving Bugs
When clocks fall back, 01:30 happens twice. When they spring forward, 02:30 never happens. Jobs, billing runs, and reports scheduled in local time can double-run or vanish. Real examples with Python, plus the schedule and coding rules that prevent it.
mTLS or Server-to-Server TLS Suddenly Fails After a Certificate Renewal? Public CAs Dropped Client Authentication
Public CAs are removing the clientAuth key usage from TLS certificates. A certificate that worked as both a server and a client certificate can renew into one that only works as a server. How to check your certificate, what breaks, and the options for fixing it.
TLS Certificates Are Getting Shorter: 200 Days Now, 100 in 2027, 47 in 2029 (What to Automate Before It Hurts)
Since March 15, 2026 public TLS certificates can last at most 200 days. The limit drops to 100 days in March 2027 and 47 days in 2029. A concrete guide for small sites: how to check what you have, what cannot be automated, and the options for NAS boxes, routers, and appliances.
Japanese Text Shows as Empty Boxes in Docker, Puppeteer, and PDFs: Install a CJK Font
Your page looks fine on your laptop, but screenshots and PDFs from a container show □□□ for Japanese. The container has no Japanese font. Here is the fix for Debian, Ubuntu, and Alpine, plus how to verify it and avoid Chinese-looking glyphs.
Why Full-Text Search Fails on Japanese (and How to Fix It in SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Elasticsearch)
Japanese has no spaces between words, so default search tokenizers index a whole sentence as one word. Compare whitespace, n-gram, and morphological tokenizers, with working setups for SQLite FTS5, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Elasticsearch.
Tech in Japan
Payments, phone numbers, keyboards, translation, and scams: the everyday IT frictions of visiting or living in Japan.
JESTA: Japan's Planned Electronic Travel Authorization Is Law but Not Live (and Any Site Selling It Today Is a Scam)
Japan passed a law in May 2026 creating JESTA, an ESTA-style online screening for visa-exempt visitors, due by the end of fiscal 2028. What is known, what is not, how it differs from Visit Japan Web, and why you should ignore sites that sell JESTA now.
Fake Delivery Texts in Japan: How to Spot Them and What to Do If You Tapped the Link
Fake 'missed delivery' SMS messages pretending to be Japan Post, Sagawa, or Yamato are common in Japan. Learn the four warning signs, how to check a parcel safely, and a step-by-step plan if you already tapped.
Why Japanese Websites Reject Your Foreign Credit Card (and What to Try)
Hotel, train, and shop checkouts in Japan often fail with foreign Visa and Mastercard cards. The cause is usually one of four points in the payment chain. A troubleshooting order that saves time.
Stuck at “Enter a Japanese Phone Number”: Your Options When You Can't Get an SMS Code
Many Japanese services verify you with an SMS to a Japanese number, which tourists and new residents often don't have. A decision tree: when to work around it, when to book elsewhere, and when you really need a local number.
How to Translate Japanese Websites, App Screens, and Error Messages (Without Getting Burned)
Use the right translation tool for the situation: browser translate for pages, Lens or Live Text for screens and screenshots, camera translate for signs. Plus how to keep the Japanese original for searching and when not to trust a translation.
How to Type Japanese on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac (Romaji Input Explained)
You do not need a Japanese keyboard to type Japanese. Add a Japanese input method, type in romaji, and press Space to pick kanji. Setup steps for four platforms and the romaji rules that trip people up.