Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 May 27 - June 2 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Leak of personal information about public pensions overturns basis of ‘My Number’ system

The Japan Pension Service on June 1 announced that the personal data of around 1.25 million people had leaked due to illegal access to its computer network. This casts a serious doubt on information protection measures of public organizations, which is the basis of the so-called “My Number” system.

Under the system, the government will assign a 12-digit identification number to each resident in Japan to implement centralized control over individuals’ information regarding pensions, social welfare services, and taxes. The numbers will be announced in October and the system will begin operation in January next year.

Though the system has yet to come into force, the Abe government in the current session of the Diet seeks to enact a bill to spread the use of the ID number system to private corporations, such as for bank accounts and health check-up results. The government intends to utilize the system to handle medical information, family registrations, and passport applications.

Some critics say that the introduction of the “My Number” ID system will only help administrative authorities to collect taxes and social insurance premiums and to slash social security payments. In addition, a leakage of ID numbers would cause irreversible damage to people’s privacy. The government should give up launching the system in the face of mounting opposition.


Past related articles:
> Concerns over ‘My Number’ system increasing among SMEs [May 6, 2015]
> Gov’t should give up use of ‘My Number’ system infringing on people’s human rights [March 2, 2015]