Photo/Illutration The Kumamoto city government website posts a notice about problems with the Justice Ministry’s family register data-sharing system. (Captured from Kumamoto city government website)

A database introduced in March for the convenience of residents needing copies of official documents is so riddled with glitches that local government workers are often forced to spend hours attending to a request rather than simply hitting a button for “print.”

The Justice Ministry set up the program to allow residents to obtain copies of official documents relating to their family registration at any local government office across the nation.

In the past, things like a death certificate could only be obtained from the local government office of the individual’s registered domicile. Sometimes, that meant a lot of travel for a surviving family member.

It is still common in Japan for individuals to maintain their registered domicile in the municipality where they were born and grew up, even if they later move far away.

Being able to obtain a death certificate swiftly to attach to an application to begin receiving a life insurance payout was seen as especially convenient.

Under the new system, the original family register transcript is kept at the government of the registered domicile.

Perhaps because of the added convenience, local governments were inundated with requests on the first day the new system went into operation. Overloading led to error messages at the local governments trying to retrieve duplicate data to issue certificates.

The problem was supposedly resolved in mid-March, only to pop up again in late May.

This latest glitch prompted some local governments to change their policy and require five business days to process a request.

On May 24, the Kumamoto city government, in effect, threw its hands in the air and posted a notice on its website stating that people who need certificates quickly should contact the local government of their registered domicile.

It turned out the new system went into operation before final checks were made to ensure the duplicate data matched the content of original documents. That, in turn, resulted in delays in making duplicate data available.

Local government officials receiving requests for certificates had to call the government of each person’s registered domicile to confirm that the duplicate data matched the original.

But as return phone calls were required in many cases, a process that normally takes 10 to 20 minutes ended up requiring two hours or so before the registered domicile government official could respond. That meant certificates could not be issued on the day of the request.

Problems also arose in submitting notifications, such as for births, deaths and marriages, for inclusion in the all-important family register. The new system was intended to do away will mailing of documents to verify the new information. But as errors emerged a few days after an addition was made, the common practice now is to have the document mailed, just in case.

About half of the notifications received each day require written documents to be sent by post, one local government worker said. As a result, family registers are often not updated for about a month.

The Digital Agency is seeking to link its Individual Number system, popularly known as the My Number system, with the Justice Ministry system from August to do away with the need for attaching family register certificates in various administrative paperwork.

But that may not be possible until the Justice Ministry system operates like clockwork.

A Justice Ministry official said every effort was being made to remove bugs from the system and apologized for the inconvenience caused in administrative matters and the added burden on local government workers.

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