Public Still Unsure What They Want from Digital Identity

There is no doubt that the move from traditional means of identity authentication to digital identities is bringing major benefits of convenience to citizens and consumers, but public acceptance is not global, as these two surveys show.

Japanese My Number ID Card 

My Number was introduced in 2016 in order to streamline government services related to taxes, social security and disaster response. The number of organisations entitled to use your My Number is strictly limited by law to national and local administrative organisations and select private entities.

The government recently announced plans to abolish the current system of health insurance cards in autumn 2024 and switch completely to using My Number ID cards.

The results of a survey on attitudes toward the My Number Card by Kioichō Strategy Institute Inc ¹ in mid-October show that 68.2% of respondents understood fully or to some extent the national identification system and the basics of the card itself. Among respondents, 59.4% said they have a My Number Card, which roughly corresponds to the 55.7% of Japanese as a whole, or 70.11 million people, who have been issued a card. By contrast, 18.4% of respondents said that they had no intention of obtaining a card.