Digital Minister Masaaki Taira responded to an interview with the Sankei Shimbun and other newspapers by the 29th, indicating his intention to move forward with the transition to the “Myna Insurance Card” on December 2nd as planned. He expressed his desire to further popularize the My Number card, saying it is necessary for the government’s response at the time. A summary of the remarks is as follows.

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When the new coronavirus spread around the world, a genius minister named Audrey Tang (Tang Feng) made headlines in Taiwan for helping people quickly obtain masks. We have developed a map app that allows you to see in real time on your smartphone which pharmacies you can get masks from.

But Tan could not have done the same if he were Japan’s digital minister. Taiwan’s health insurance cards contain IC chips, which were used to manage mask distribution. Meanwhile, in Japan at the time, the ownership rate of My Number cards containing IC chips was around 10%.

At that time, I had a strong feeling that there was no point in talking about the fact that MynaCard was not popular. Pandemics (global pandemics) can occur at any time, and natural disasters are occurring all over the world. With the possibility of an earthquake directly hitting the Tokyo metropolitan area or an earthquake along the Nankai Trough, digitalization is essential in order to strengthen administrative functions.

It is necessary to proceed as planned with the transition to the “Myna Insurance Card,” which has the function of an insurance card on the Myna Card. There is also a need to optimize the overall medical expenses, which amount to 40 trillion yen, and new value will be created from the data obtained.

For those who do not have a MynaCard, we are distributing “eligibility confirmation letters” so that they can use the card for the time being, which has covered most of the issues. Up until now, we have been running a campaign to encourage people to register, but we would like to shift our publicity efforts to be more tailored to people with concerns.

Expanding the usage scenarios holds the key to popularization. It is also possible (technically) to safely charge points etc. to MynaCard so that you can make purchases. It can be designed in a variety of ways, including for regional revitalization and economic stimulus, so I think (if progress is made) there will be even more uses for it.

(Hiroyuki Manpuku)