Japan Wants More People to Use Digital Identification

2022-10-27

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1
  • Japan's government wants more people to sign up for digital identification cards (IDs), but the idea is unpopular.
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  • The government is asking people to apply for plastic My Number cards which have microchips and photos.
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  • The cards connect to driver's licenses and the public health insurance plans.
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  • Health insurance cards now in use, which do not have photos, will no longer be used in late 2024.
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  • People will have to use My Number cards instead.
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  • That change has created strong disagreement.
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  • An online petition demanding that the current health cards continue got more than 100,000 signatures in a few days.
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  • The digital card system began in 2016, but people have been slow to use it.
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  • Many Japanese worry their information might be stolen and that the digital ID violates their right to privacy.
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  • There are other reasons people are against the digital cards.
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  • Some Japanese prefer paper and in-person meetings.
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  • Many Japanese do business in person, using cash, and many offices require people to bring paper documents.
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  • Japanese traditionally value quality work done by hand, and many also carefully save documents, keeping them in well-organized files.
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  • Some say the current health insurance card system has been working well for decades and that going digital will create more work.
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  • Koichi Kurosawa, secretary-general at the National Confederation of Trade Unions said people would be happier with digitization if it made their work easier and shorter.
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  • However, he said that was not the case in many Japanese workplaces.
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  • After leaks of private information and other mistakes, many Japanese do not trust the government.
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  • They worry about the government having too much power.
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  • This is partly because of the history of authoritarian government before and during World War II.
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  • Kurosawa said people "are worried it will lead to tighter surveillance."
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  • Saeko Fujimori works in the music copyright business.
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  • She said she is supposed to get My Number information from the people she deals with, but many refuse to share the information.
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  • "There is a microchip in it, and that means there could be fraud," said Fujimori, who has a My Number but doesn't plan to get the new card.
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  • "If a machine is reading all the information, that can lead to mistakes in the medical sector, too."
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  • Getting an existing My Number digitized takes a lot of time and uses paper.
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  • People must fill out and mail back documents.
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  • Last month's deadline was extended, but only about half of the Japanese population have a My Number, the government says.
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  • "They keep failing in anything digital and we have no memories of successful digital transformation by the government," said Nobi Hayashi, a technology expert.
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  • Hayashi says the government's effort to get more people to get digital cards needs to be more "vision-driven."
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  • "They don't show a bigger picture, or they don't have one," Hayashi said.
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  • Yojiro Maeda is a researcher at Nagasaki University who studies local governments.
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  • He thinks digitization is needed, and My Number is a step in the right direction.
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  • "You just have to do it," Maeda said.
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  • Japan's Minister of Digital Affairs, Taro Kono, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that more is needed to persuade people of the benefits of going digital.
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  • Kono said, "We need to win people's understanding so that My Number cards get used in all kinds of situations."
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  • I'm Andrew Smith.