Photo/Illutration A sample of a My Number card (Provided by internal affairs ministry)

The so-called Murphy’s Law boils down to this maxim: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

This sardonic observation of U.S. society has spawned endless corollaries, about which many books have been published over time.

Among them is the 1977 best-seller “Murphy’s Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” by Arthur Bloch, which has been translated into Japanese.

Here’s one law that goes to the effect, “No matter how fine your work, your boss will try to tamper with it.” I wonder if the author overheard the pet peeve of one of my colleagues at The Asahi Shimbun?

Another: “When you are about to do something, something crops up that has to be done first.”

Perhaps this is exactly how central and local government bureaucrats in charge of the “My Number” (12-digit individual ID number) system are feeling now.

This system is so fraught with glitches, it blows the mind.

People were issued resident cards that were not theirs, and they also received health care information of total strangers. And in the latest problem, wrong bank accounts were registered.

The government explained the last two snafus owed to simple “human errors,” and I agree.

But then, that could not have been unrelated to the government’s policy of forcing the My Number card into circulation at all costs.

As the “carrot” with which to coax the reluctant public, the government gave points to those who signed up for the card. And as the “stick” with which to force people into submission, the government threatened to do away with the traditional health care card altogether.

This made people form long queues at local government service counters to apply for the My Number card.

But after so much ado, the government is now forced to conduct a “full examination” of data. How ironic.

Here’s another piece of Murphy’s Law: “The first 90 percent of the task takes 90 percent of the time, and the last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent.”

So long as the task of linking each ID number to various data continues, “human errors” are likely to occur even after the completion of “full examination” of data.

Unless the government is thinking that far in planning its next steps, the reliability of the My Number system will only keep eroding.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 25

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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