Deep Skepticism on ID Number

Since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida started leading his administration in the fall of 2021, one of the primary domestic political agenda has been introduction and prevalence of new national identification card called My Number card. While the issue seemed to have reached a culmination when the Diet passed the bill for scrapping health insurance card and integrate it with My Number card, a lot of errors over the issuance or operation of the cards were revealed after the law was enacted, causing broad public discredit on the government. It is possible that My Number can be fatal for Kishida administration.

 

My Number was introduced under Shinzo Abe administration in 2013, providing the people with twelve-digit identification number to make administrative procedures such as taxation or social security efficient. While the government distributed the number to every citizen, My Number card did not prevail as much as the government expected. Although the government hoped the number to be tied with health insurance and drivers’ license, the people were skeptical about protection of their privacy. Abe’s successor Yoshihide Suga started in 2020 the campaign of adding certain incentives to My Number card, which was offering new card holder 5,000 shopping point called Maina Point, equivalent to ¥5,000, so that the card could cover all the citizens.

 

Kishida began the second campaign of Maina Point last year, giving 5,000 points for obtaining the card, 7,500 points for integrating with health insurance and 7,500 points for the connection with personal bank account. He also announced that current health insurance card would be scrapped by the fall of 2024, integrating it with My Number card. Amendment of My Number Act, which expanded the utility of the card and legally determined integration of health insurance card with My Number card and establishment of new system for promoting connection between the number and personal bank account, passed the Diet earlier this month.

 

Although some loopholes of My Number system had already been reported, various mishandlings of personal data was reported after the amended My Number Act was enacted. In the process of registration of personal bank accounts for receiving public benefits, there were many examples of wrong linkage with family accounts. Those mistakes occurred mainly when parents registered their accounts for their children, violating the rule of one account for one person. The rule makes no sense as long as little kids, who even are entitled to receive governmental benefits, cannot open their own bank accounts.

 

In spite of the fact that My Number system was introduced as a policy of national government, actual registration service was left to the personnel of local governments. In some cases, personal data was registered to wrong person. The data included medical history, history of pension payment, or benefits for raising kids or handicapped persons. Some people were charged 100% of medical bills in the hospital, which must normally be 30% or less by using health insurance, caused by the mishandlings of My Number. Different from the ID systems of other countries including the social security number of United States, according to the report of Mainichi Shimbun, Japan’s My Number system is not controlled in a unified manner. Since a lot of ministries wanted to utilize My Number for their policies, they dividedly hold the citizens’ personal data for protecting privacy.

 

The political impact of the systemic errors of My Number is not small. Digital Minister, Taro Kono, apologized the consecutive failures in My Number registration and Kishida announced establishing a special inspection team, trying to cool down the public opposition. Nevertheless, they showed firm intension to scrap current health insurance card and integrate it to My Number card in the fall of 2024. The polls operated on June 17^th and 18^th showed steep decline of Kishida’s supporting rate. In the Kyodo poll, it dropped by 6.2 points to 40.8%. Asahi poll marked 4 points down to 42%, and Mainichi’s showed 12 points down to 33%. Most people, as well as most newspapers’ editorials, demand cancellation or postponement of the integration plan of health insurance card with My Number card.

 

Kishida promised that he would not scrap current health insurance card as long as the people’s anxiety is not removed. However, the introduction of integrated personal identification number had been a long-cherished wish of Kasumigaseki. When the government considered introduction of integrated ID number in 1970s, it faced firm oppositions from the public that worried about growing governmental control over the people or the breach of personal information. The administration of Democratic Party of Japan started discussion for common ID number in the integrated reform of taxation and social security in early 2010’s.

 

My Number can be originated with the discussion over how to salvage low-income families from the negative impacts of consumption tax hike under DPJ administration. One possible solution at that time was “tax credit with benefits” with introduction of common ID number. My Number has also been discussed in a context of a method for distributing the benefit from the government to the people. But the unchanged hidden intention must be the stronger and easier governmental control over the people. This time, Japanese government has been too hasted to prepare for avoiding every possible human error, luring the people with visible incentives. There is no easy way for Kishida to regain public credibility for My Number system.