Distrust stymies online network

It was touted as a way to streamline public administrative work, reduce paperwork and give people easy access to their personal information.

But years later, the Basic Resident Register Network, known as Juki Net, is still floundering. The 39.1-billion-yen nationwide online network has been met with apathy, distrust of the government and even lawsuits on its constitutionality that reached the Supreme Court.

"The Juki Net is a system that assigns an identification code to each resident, and the goal is administrative efficiency," said Hisashi Sonoda, professor of criminal and information law at Konan University. "Yet the government claims 'it is beneficial for the residents,' which comes off as hypocritical."

After all, he asks, how often do people need copies of their resident registration paper or use their certificates for name seal impressions in daily life?

The network was created to consolidate management of basic information, including names, dates of birth and addresses, of residents who are each assigned an 11-digit identification code.

Juki Net links the databases of the national and local governments across the nation. Juki Net cards that double as identification cards are issued so that cardholders can tap into the network to obtain copies of necessary papers at a local government office anywhere across the nation.

But since the system went online in August 2002, many lawsuits have been filed across the nation amid concerns about the potential for abuse and information leaks.

The government expected to issue 3 million Juki Net identification cards in fiscal 2003 alone.

As of December 2007, only 1.87 million cards, or 1.5 percent of the population, had been issued.

Only two cards were issued in Okawa, Kochi Prefecture, a village of about 490. Of the two Juki Net cardholders, one is a village official.

Three municipalities--Kunitachi city in western Tokyo, Tokyo's Suginami Ward, and the town of Yamatsuri in Fukushima Prefecture--have refused to join the network due to concerns over the handling of private information.

Critics say the government must reconsider the raison d'etre of the system itself.

But the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications continues to push the benefits and user-friendliness of Juki Net cards.

"If a local government issues an ordinance, the cardholder can become eligible for multiple-faceted services, such as paying utility bills and online booking of public facilities," a ministry official said.

Some local governments are making use of the IC chips on the cards to let cardholders accumulate "community currency" bonuses when they use their Juki Net cards.

In another municipality, residents in times of disaster can hold their cards over a reader at emergency evacuation centers to let family members far away know that they are safe.

But these are exceptions to the rule.

More than 90 percent of all municipalities, or about 1,700, have not bothered to introduce extra services, the ministry said.

Another problem is the rising number of cases involving fake ID cards.

According to the ministry, about 60 cases of forged ID cards have been reported by municipalities during fiscal 2007.

As a countermeasure starting this month, the ministry distributed software to cellphone companies and banking facilities that scans information on the IC chip to ensure the Juki Net card is legitimate.

But there is no knowing how effective the software will prove.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare plans to introduce its own "social security card" that consolidates the functions of the nenkin techo pension booklet, the hokensho public health insurance card and the kaigo hokensho nursing-care insurance certificate.

The health ministry is considering a tie-up with the Juki Net cards, but many have warned against the unification of such information because of privacy concerns.

If the two cards are not consolidated, the future of the Juki Net will remain unclear.

So has the Juki Net system streamlined administrative work?

The Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (JPC-SED), a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization based in Tokyo, calculated that Juki Net has enabled local governments to cut 9.05 million hours of work related to administrative services.

The reduction was mostly from eliminating duplicates of registration papers and change-of-residence applications by handling that work online.

In monetary terms, the reduced work equals an estimated saving of 91.7 billion yen a year, according to JPC-SED.

But for places that had already computerized their resident registration system, the Juki Net service has not brought about any visible shortcuts for personnel at reception desks.

"Local municipalities are well aware that (Juki Net) was a failure," professor Sonoda said. "But in reality, they have no option but to soldier on and follow the orders of the central government."(IHT/Asahi: March 7,2008)