Japan Press Weekly

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2012 July 25 - 31 [POLITICS]

Gov’t attempting to introduce ID number system

Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko is attempting to enact within the next month a bill to issue “My Number” to every Japanese citizen in order to manage their tax payments and social welfare benefits, describing it as an “important bill closely linked to the unified reform” of the taxation and social welfare programs.

If the bill is enacted, authorities will be allowed to manage citizens’ personal information, such as their tax payments, incomes, as well as their receipts of medical, nursing, pension, and other types of social security benefits.

The “My Number” system could lead to a change of the social welfare system from “according to recipients’ needs” to “according to their ability to pay”.

In addition to their consumption tax hike bill, the Democratic, Liberal Democratic, and Komei parties have jointly submitted to the Diet a bill to promote a so-called reform of the social services system, which calls for citizens’ “self-support” efforts to be the basis of the public social services programs.

On July 23, LDP Lower House member Noda Takeshi, who was involved in reaching the 3-party agreement, stated in a Diet discussion, “Benefits should be determined based on tax payers’ ability or inability to pay.” Allowing administrative bodies to calculate tax payers’ payments and benefits, the identification system could be used to cut their social security benefits.

In its promotion of the “My Number” system, the government argues that it will make administrative procedures easier and lead to creating a fair taxation system by preventing tax cheating.

Meanwhile, DPJ parliamentarian Tamura Kenji at a party meeting expressed his intention to use the system to forcibly collect taxes by stating, “The bill is important in order to strengthen the enforcement of payment of taxes.”

Concerns remain over the prevention of leaking private information and the illegal use of private information since the ID numbers will be shared by administrative bodies and private institutions such as hospitals and nursing care facilities.

On the other hand, the government will be able to easily collect every kind of personal information with the ID number system.