Inconsistent Handling in Japan’s My Number Card Policy

The Japanese government has been aggressively promoting the integration of various functions into the My Number Card, including health insurance cards and driver’s licenses, while also discontinuing the issuance of traditional health insurance cards.

These policies have a significant impact on daily life, and it increasingly feels as though living without a My Number Card is becoming difficult in practice.

The government argues that one of the benefits of this policy is that people will no longer need to carry multiple cards.
However, this explanation leaves some questions unanswered.

For example, long-term care insurance certificates are still issued on paper. Moreover, they remain large in size and are not particularly convenient to carry.

If the government truly prioritized convenience through the “integration of cards,” it would be natural to expect long-term care insurance certificates to be integrated into the My Number Card system as well.

In reality, however, only health insurance cards have become the focus of integration, while long-term care insurance certificates remain unchanged.

Because health insurance is used by all citizens, integrating it with the My Number Card strongly encourages people to obtain the card. By contrast, users of long-term care insurance are already health insurance users as well, meaning that integrating long-term care insurance certificates would have relatively little additional effect on card adoption.

For this reason, one cannot help but question whether the government’s true priority is not merely improving convenience, but rather promoting widespread adoption of the My Number Card itself.

This is not to deny the value of digitalizing public administration.
However, as long as inconsistencies remain in the system’s design, citizens should continue to carefully monitor the direction in which these policies are heading.