A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.
If nothing is done, it will quickly gain momentum and rip through the student body, then jump to parents and others in the community. But officials will attempt to stymie the disease and save the school — using mobile phones.
The sickness will be a virtual one, in an experiment funded by the government. A subsidiary of Softbank Corp., the major Internet and cellular provider, has proposed a system that uses phones to limit pandemics.