The Digital Agency of Japan has initiated the My Number App, which serves as a platform for accessing government services and facilitating identity verification.
The application merges the functionalities of the existing Digital Authentication App and the My Number Portal App, allowing individuals to utilize [1] their My Number Card Japan’s personal identification card linked to a unique 12-digit national identification number for the purposes of identity verification, access to administrative procedures such as address changes or passport applications, and provision of electronic signatures, all within a single application.
Current users of the Myna Portal application [2] are able to transition to the new service seamlessly by updating the application. Individuals who do not possess the application may obtain the My Number App from a designated app store. As reported by BigGo Finance, the newly developed application [3] is designed to support the My Number Card on iPhone and the electronic certificate for Android devices, enabling identity verification via biometric authentication without the necessity of physically presenting the card.
In 2023, My Number [4] was designed to issue a digital ID card to every resident, facilitating access to a range of government services while serving as a replacement for health insurance cards. One application of these cards is to allow residents to request that administrative documents be printed at convenience stores or government offices. However, the implementation of this scheme has been associated with recurrent data breaches, wherein residents have received documents that contain personal information belonging to others.
Fujitsu has acknowledged that on June 28, a local governmental authority issued a resident card, which [5] was subsequently collected by an individual who discovered that the card contained personal information pertaining to a different individual. “We sincerely apologize once again for the repeated errors in issuing certificates due to the ‘Fujitsu MICJET Convenience Store Issuance’ system provided by Fujitsu Japan Limited which have caused considerable inconvenience and concern to local governments and users of the Service. Regarding the service in question, we conducted a re-inspection that involved a system shutdown, and we informed you that it was completed on June 17th. However, on June 28th, a new erroneous certificate was issued to a municipality using the service. Details are as follows,” said Fujitsu.
In an article [6] by Sarah Hilton for the Rest of World, Japan’s digital ID programme [7] was described as a complicated mess, “An aspirational digital identity project is dragging down the likability of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In a Kyodo News poll from July 16, the approval rating for the Kishida government slid to around 34%, with the dissatisfaction linked to a key issue: errors with Japan’s My Number identification system,” said Hilton. “In Japan, many administrative errands are done in person: banking, tax filing, paperwork for moving house, you name it. The My Number ID card, which allows digital verification, moves some of this burden online. But since its launch in 2015, no politician has been able to make it stick just 15% of the population used it in 2019, partly due to data privacy concerns.”
In July 2026, a pilot programme designed to assess the technical feasibility of cross-border issuance and verification of [8] academic credentials between Japan and European Union countries through digital identity wallets has been deemed successful. “The pilot has successfully demonstrated that cross-border digital credential exchange can be achieved using established international standards between countries or regions with different technical and regulatory frameworks. It has shown that the technical framework for secure, privacy-preserving credential presentation and issuance is viable for cross-border scenarios. International interoperability can be ensured through existing architectures, even if parties have different governance frameworks,” said the EU Commission.
The EU also published [9] a report outlining the pilot's objectives, which included evaluating the alignment of digital ID interoperability standards between Japan and the EU. Utilizing the EUDI wallet prototype, the initiative investigated practical applications in areas such as opening bank accounts and facilitating student exchanges, underscoring its potential benefits for both economic and social interactions. According to the report, the pilot programme utilizing open standards has demonstrated that digital identity credentials issued through the European Digital Identity Wallet and Japan's My Number Card system can be issued, stored, presented, and verified across various countries and regions. Another significant finding is that the cross-border application of digital identity systems is technically feasible, even when governance frameworks and technical architectures differ significantly. In recent years, Japan has undergone a major architectural transformation, evolving the My Number Card from a government credential into a platform for private sector services.