Taiwan's digital minister draws praise in Japan for mask app

Audrey Tang helped establish software that tracks inventories

A staff member wears a mask with a Taiwanese flag design at a factory for non woven filter fabric used to make surgical masks in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Monday. © Reuters

Nikkei staff writers

March 31, 2020 23:27 JST

TOKYO -- A Taiwanese app that tracks inventories of face masks is drawing plaudits in Japan and elsewhere -- as is one of the software's developers: Digital Minister Audrey Tang.

Tang, a minister without portfolio in Taiwan's Executive Yuan, is a former internet prodigy who was hired by a major IT company at age 14 and started her own business before she turned 20. She joined the cabinet in 2016.