A governmental commission will conduct an onsite inspection of the Digital Agency following a series of errors involving the Individual My Number system that led to a loss of confidence in the program, according to sources. 

The errors include ones where the wrong individuals were linked to numbers in the system, popularly known as the My Number Card.  

Sources said that the Personal Information Protection Commission will undertake the probe by the end of this month at the earliest.

The commission takes seriously the agency's failure to manage risks regarding My Number, which is entrusted with personal information, and implement measures to safeguard the numbers.

The commission is considering issuing administrative guidance to the agency based on the My Number law.

While the government is rushing to promote the use of My Number cards, cases of personal information leakage have been reported in rapid succession.

Such cases include ones where My Numbers were linked to health insurance cards of different individuals.

There also have been cases where My Numbers were tied to pensions of those who are not holders of the numbers.

The commission announced outlines of what it would do about each error involving the My Number system at its meeting on July 5.

The commission officials said at the meeting that it takes seriously the agency’s responsibility for the fact that some My Numbers were linked to wrong bank accounts to receive public money, such as cash handouts.

The actual errors occurred when people registered bank accounts using terminals placed at city halls to register such information and failed to sign off.

But the commission has concluded that the Digital Agency wasn’t thorough in providing instructions on how to use such terminals.

The commission has also concluded that the agency failed to manage risks regarding My Numbers and implement measures to safeguard such numbers.

By the end of June, the agency became aware of 940 cases where incorrect bank accounts were linked to My Numbers.

In these cases, information such as names of banks or bank account numbers could be viewed by the wrong people.

On June 30, the commission received a report on such errors from the agency as required by the My Number law.

But it is believed that the commission has concluded that it still needs more information about the errors by conducting an onsite inspection at the agency.

The commission is also considering issuing instructions to relevant organizations concerning cases where certificates of residence were issued to the wrong people at convenience stores.

These people tried to obtain their own certificates of residence using machines placed at convenience stores and My Number cards.

The government is conducting an overhaul of the My Number system.

But the commission is poised to do the onsite inspection at the agency before the overhaul is completed.

My Numbers are 12-digit numbers allocated to each individual.

The central and local governments use My Numbers when handling information on residents. Only one My Number is allocated for each person for their lifetime, in principle.

It’s always possible to identify who is the holder of My Numbers through the numbers.

Therefore, leakage of My Numbers information could incur high risks.

For this reason, supervising and monitoring the My Number system is the responsibility of the commission, which is a third-party organization highly independent of the government, and not the responsibility of the Digital Agency, which operates the My Number system.

It would be rare for the commission to issue administrative guidance to a government office concerning a system that it is directly responsible for.

However, the commission issued administrative guidance to the National Tax Agency and other organizations in 2019 regarding the case in which a company contracted by the agency to input personal information including My Numbers in a system subcontracted the task to another company without permission.

“Even though errors such as leakage of important personal information including bank account numbers continued to be reported, the presence of the Personal Information Protection Commission hasn't been felt so far,” said Takashi Jitsuhara, professor of the study of the Constitution and information law at Nanzan University.

He added that the focus will now be on how the commission will conduct the inspection and deal with the issues regarding the My Number system.

(This article was written by Junki Watanabe and Shuhei Shibata.)