My Number card in Japan, assessing the benefits of the Individual Number ID

It’s been around three weeks since the second phase of the Mynapoint campaign got into full swing as the Japanese government looks to increase the number of residents holding an Individual Number card, more commonly known as “My Number card.”

In the first 10 days of the campaign’s second phase applications for mynapoints exceeded five million, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 

“We would like even more people to take advantage of the points, so if you have not yet applied, please first obtain your My Number card,” Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yasuyuki Kaneko told reporters on July 12 of the campaign which offers card holders the opportunity to get points which can be used for cashless shopping. 

Prior to the launch of the second Mynapoint campaign the number of individual My Number cards issued was around 56.6 million, or 44.7 percent of the population, as of June 1, according to ministry data.

For a government eyeing a target of nearly all members of the public being in possession of an individual My Number card by the end of FY2022, just over 56 million card holders would appear to represent sluggish progress for a scheme which has been in place since January of 2016.

By now, though, should the ever-increasing benefits of a My Number card not be speaking loudly and clearly for themselves.  

[VIDEO] What's next for 20000 MYNAPOINT and MY NUMBER CARD holders?

Benefit - Convenient ID

My Number cards can serve as identification and confirmation of your Individual Number - a number given to residents of Japan for social security and tax identification purposes. We all already have a Notification Card which details this number but this card, in and of itself, generally does not constitute a valid form of identification. In this regard, a My Number card can kill two birds with one stone. 

Since the introduction of the My Number system residents may be required to present their Individual Number in situations that could include HR at a place of employment, matters pertaining to childcare, when seeking medical treatment, claiming pension benefits, and during administrative procedures in response to natural disasters, among others.

It should be noted that only those businesses and organizations stipulated by law have the authority to ask for, copy, and store information detailed on a My Number card.

Benefit - Skip the city office, obtain documents at a convenience store

Perhaps one of the more appealing benefits of a My Number card is that it can be used to obtain official documentation - including residence and taxation certificates - from terminals / copy machines at convenience stores, thus skipping the need for a time-consuming visit to the local government office.  

Convenience stores and other establishments up to the task of issuing certificates to card holders can be found here: https://www.lg-waps.go.jp/01-03.html   

Services vary depending on the municipality. Check what’s on offer in your municipality of residence here: https://www.lg-waps.go.jp/01-04.html 

Benefit - Apply for digital COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate

Holding a COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate might make crossing international borders easier for the prospective traveler.  

Despite reportedly being asked not to by some voices within the private sector, as well as those within municipalities and medical institutions, Japan’s Digital Agency made it mandatory for people applying for the digital form of the vaccination certificate to be in possession of a My Number card - in which case applications can be made online / via smartphone application.  

The rest of us would have to make a trip to the local government office in order to later take delivery of a paper vaccination certificate which looks like little more than a school homework handout. 

Benefit - Use it as your health insurance card

In October 2021 it became possible for My Number card holders to register their card for use in place of a health insurance card. While being a card lighter doesn’t sound like much of a benefit, registering a My Number card for use as a health insurance card comes with apparent merits that the latter cannot afford, including:

Holders can use their My Number card as a health insurance card even after starting a new job, moving house, getting married and going through other significant life events that would require surrendering a health insurance card to be updated.

Holders can login to the Myna Portal - the platform through which some of the My Number card services can be accessed - to view medical checkup information and keep track of medical expenses.  

Staff at medical facilities can more smoothly gain access to a patient’s medical history (only with said patient’s permission), such that they can plan treatment and issue prescriptions based on digital records pegged to an Individual Number - particularly useful in times of disaster such as when administering medical treatment in the chaotic aftermath of earthquakes, heavy rains, and typhoons.

Easier reception at medical facilities. It’s hoped that the reception process at clinics and other medical facilities will be made easier through the My Number card system, reducing the burden on patients to explain past issues and reducing form-filling.

Benefit - Easier receipt of financial aid

Since March 2022, My Number card holders have been able to link their cards to a bank account. In doing so they can more easily register to receive financial benefits, like the 100,000 yen cash handout provided during the COVID pandemic. Receipt of other benefits through the linked bank account could include pensions, childcare allowances, and income tax refunds.

Some of the above benefits of a My Number card (and others to follow) are facilitated by two electronic certificates stored on the card’s IC chip - one serving as a kind of electronic signature and the other for user certification. 

The "digital signature" contains four pieces of information - holder’s name, address, date of birth, and gender. The signature can be used when sending electronic documents such as tax returns via the e-Tax platform.

The "digital certification" is used as a means of proving identity when using the Myna Portal platform, as well as when making use of convenience store delivery services.

These two types of digital certificates have been available for use by private businesses recognized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications since January 2016.

The IC chip in a My Number card also has free space available for municipalities and prefectures to provide their own services as stipulated in their ordinances, and for national organizations as stipulated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Examples of the use of this space by municipalities could include the facilitation of convenience store delivery for official certificates. Space could also be used as a prefectural library card, according to examples given by the ministry.

The list of applications and benefits of the My Number card looks set to increase.  

From 2022 My Number cards could used as a Hello Work card - the registration card allowing receipt of services at Hello Work government employment service centers.

Cards are also being eyed for use as electronic “job cards” - part of a career planning and support service provided by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare - and could also be linked to the Construction Career Development System, a system used to register the employment performance and qualifications of construction workers. 

From 2024 there are plans aimed at enabling My Number cards to be connected to drivers licenses as well as to potentially facilitate the use of cards during administrative procedures for holders based overseas.    

And let’s not forget the Mynapoint campaign - a benefit of holding a My Number card, perhaps, but ostensibly an effort by the government to increase the number of holders. (An effort which appears to be bearing fruit. The results of a March 2022 survey revealed the chance to acquire mynapoints as the most commonly cited reason behind applying for a My Number card.) 

That the authorities have seen it fit to dangle the prospect of free money in front of reluctant My Number card applicants is perhaps a reflection of the benefits failing to outweigh the concerns people have about pouring their personal, financial, and medical information into a government-issued identification card. 

"Yes, the potential to reduce the number of trips to the local government office is an appeal..."

Yes, the potential to reduce the number of trips to the local government office is an appeal - although those electronic certificates will expire, and foreign residents, after updating their status of residence, will also have to update their My Number card to reflect this.

The benefits of a My Number card used in place of a health insurance card are really yet to become clear. On the contrary, early reports detailed an increase in fees, however slight, incurred by patients at those medical institutions equipped to handle the new card function. Fees were raised to compensate for the administrative costs incurred by those institutions in introducing the new system.

Perhaps the most unappealing aspect of the My Number card though, is the prospect of connecting it with a bank account and thus giving the government the ability to gauge an individual’s financial assets. This is something which the government had mulled making mandatory, before backing down from that position.  

In the same March 2022 survey cited above, among the respondents who had yet to apply for a My Number card, nearly 60 percent said that they didn’t want to apply for one. The most common reasons behind this reluctance were cited as “not feeling the need to,” “concerns about the security of personal information,” “the hassle of the application process,” and “the lack of benefits.”

In addressing concerns about the security of personal information, only the minimum necessary information is stored on the My Number card’s IC chip, according to the ministry. Information such as that regarding taxes and pension benefits is not stored on the chip.

Cards are also said to be “tamper resistant,” referring to countermeasures such as the automatic erasing of information stored on the IC chip in the event of unauthorized attempts to read it.

In the event of loss or theft, cards can be “canceled” 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Regardless of the security measures that go into My Number cards, the public arguably has every right to be concerned about how their personal information is handled by the authorities in Japan, let alone by any nefarious characters who might try to intercept it. 

"Public confidence in their local government’s ability to safely handle personal information was shaken..."

Public confidence in their local government’s ability to safely handle personal information was shaken in June after the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, lost a USB flash drive containing personal information on all of its roughly 460,000 residents. This information included the bank account numbers of households receiving welfare. 

“We will continue to work hard to ensure that information security measures are properly implemented by local governments,” Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yasuyuki Kaneko told reporters following the incident. 

Despite the embarrassment of the missing USB, the central government has been issuing a rallying call to local municipalities to increase their efforts in spreading the use and awareness of the benefits of My Number cards. And that call appears to be getting heard.

In the city of Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, authorities have been providing My Number card application assistance which includes the deployment of a dedicated application assistance vehicle, the "Mina-chan Car," which can visit the home of even a single applicants.

In a region that often receives torrential rainfall, other efforts to improve the convenience of the card by the city have included the development of a unique system allowing people to enter evacuation centers by reading their My Number card, forgoing the need to have them write anything down. 

As a result of these efforts, Miyakonojo's card issuance rate as of June 30, 2022 was 81.3 percent, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. This made Miyakonojo the first city in Japan to exceed the 80 percent issuance rate, according to a press release issued by the city in July. 

Elsewhere, in Hyogo Prefecture, staff from the city of Miki reportedly began visiting businesses and community organizations within the municipality in order that workers and others can submit My Number card applications onsite, rather than having to take time out to go to the local government office.  

Some authorities then appear to be adopting a very much proactive approach to spreading awareness of the benefits of the My Number card. Perhaps that next ring of the door bell won’t be NHK, but rather a member of the city staff similarly hopeful that they might come away with some freshly filled-out forms. 

Should I apply for a My Number card?

It’s easy to adopt a conspiratorial tone regarding the spread of the individual My Number card by a government that wants to keep an eye on our finances and the likelihood that we might end up being a financial burden on the healthcare system in our later years.

Perhaps, however, the conspiratorial can be countered by images of a civil service struggling to keep up as it creaks along to the rhythms of fax machines and floppy disks, and the beat of an ink stamp hitting yet another sheet of paper. 

Maybe the reality of the My Number card lies somewhere in the middle. Maybe it doesn’t matter anyway. There’s a sense of grinding inevitably about the My Number card to the point that as residents of Japan, you feel we basically won’t be able to get any admin done without it.  

Maybe it would be better to grab those mynapoints while we can then. 

Related: 

How to get 20,000 yen from Japan’s My Number card, 2nd Mynapoint campaign 

My number 20,000 yen point campaign application deadline extended

Watch the video on the City-Cost YouTube channel:

Are you aware of the benefits of a My Number card?  Do they outweigh any concerns over the handling of personal information?