Amendments to integrate My Number Cards and health insurance cards and to expand the scope of use of My Number were voted on by a special committee of the House of Councillors and approved with a majority of votes.
It is expected to be approved and enacted at the plenary session of the House of Councillors to be held on June 6.
Amendments
to the My Number Act and other laws submitted by the government include abolishing health insurance cards and integrating them with My Number cards, and expanding the scope of use of My Number, which had been limited to the three fields of social security, taxation, and
disaster countermeasures.
On May 3, the committee voted on the amendment and passed it with a large majority.
The revised bill is expected to be approved and enacted at a plenary session of the House of Councillors on June 5.
There have been a series of problems with My Number Cards, such as more than 31,6 cases in which other people's information was registered on integrated health insurance cards, and mistakes occurred in which a public money receiving account that can receive government benefits was registered in another person's My Number.
Regarding this, at the joint review committee held prior to the vote, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Kato stated, "I am sorry that this has led to damage to the trust of the entire system and caused great concern to the public.
In addition, Minister of Digital Kono stated, "It is a major premise that mistakes will occur if humans intervene, and I would like to regularly check data to ensure that no problems have occurred and firmly establish the system of the Digital Agency to prevent mistakes from being repeated."