A leap day computer glitch affected some systems and automatic teller machines Tuesday, but the government did not found any severe malfunctions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said.

Reflecting on some of the malfunctions, however, Aoki said the preparations for possible problems may not have been as complete in comparison with those for expected Y2K hassles on New Year's Day.

The Year 2000 problem caused no major problems in infrastructure or business on Jan. 1.

"As we had no major problems on New Year's Day, the preparations this time may not have been enough," Aoki said.

Aoki said earlier in the day that the government did not receive reports of incidents that "would have any serious effect on people's lives."

The Meteorological Agency said the glitch hit its Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) weather report system.

Erroneous data were discovered early Tuesday at 43 of some 1,300 regional meteorological observation sites in Japan, according to the agency.

The affected systems were repaired by engineers and they resumed normal operations at around 4 p.m., some 15 hours after the first error was reported, officials said.

The 43 sites for the AMeDAS system in 23 prefectures in western and southwestern Japan had started sending out incorrect data on precipitation levels, temperatures and wind velocities from around 1 a.m.

Meanwhile, some 1,200 of about 25,000 automated teller machines for postal savings accounts throughout Japan failed to function Tuesday morning due to a disruption in the ATM network, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry officials said.

The ATM problem may be related to the leap-year computer glitch, they said.

Many machines at major post offices issued receipts for registered letters bearing the date March 1, instead of Feb. 29, officials said.

Also at post offices, about half of some 7,400 "medium-size" interest-rate display boards showed the date as March 1, they said.

In Aomori and Akita prefectures, part of their seismic observation systems indicated the date as March 1, but the trouble did not affect the systems' functioning, according to local officials.

No disruption was reported in banking systems, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Bankers Association said.

BOJ officials said the BOJ-NET, which links the central bank with major financial institutions for daily financial settlement services, was functioning normally.

Other systems for data communications, foreign exchange settlements and individual credit information were also operating normally, while there were no reports of disruption at ATM systems, the banking industry body said.

The government set up a task force Monday night to deal with a computer glitch stemming from an irregular leap year that occurs once every 400 years.

The Gregorian calendar has a leap year every four years, in which an extra day is added to account for the Earth actually taking approximately 365.25 days to orbit the sun.

But over many centuries, the difference between this approximate value and the more precise measurement of 365.242 days accumulates significantly. To offset this discrepancy, leap days are skipped in years ending in "00," unless they are divisible by 400. This makes 2000 a leap year.

As a result, computer programs that do not take into account this special leap year could mistake Feb. 29 for March 1.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange reported Tuesday computer trouble involving its stock-quote display terminals, but denied that the leap day had caused a Y2K-like glitch.

The malfunction made it difficult to display some stock index futures prices and options quotes on terminals installed at brokerages' outlets, a TSE official said.

"It's because of a mistake by the operator, and not because of a computer bug connected with the leap-year day," the official said.

"Trading was not affected and the terminals will return to normal by Tuesday night," he said.

There are some 10,000 such terminals at brokerages' outlets, allowing investors to monitor price movements.