EDITORIAL: ID number system

The government was to announce, possibly on Friday, a set of basic principles for the proposed introduction of a national identification number system as a means of tracking individual citizens' social security, income and asset information for welfare and taxation purposes.

In addition to explaining the necessity and benefits of the system, the government should try to ease people's concerns before introducing the new system through adequate debate on related issues.

Designed to help build public support for the proposal, the basic principles define the scope of the uses and methods of managing the system so that people will understand the benefits.

The government will be able to offer more efficient and user-oriented social security services if the envisioned ID number system allows it to acquire information about each citizen's income and assets. That's because the system makes it much easier to spot people who need help and assess how badly they need it.

The aging of the population combined with low birthrates is creating increasingly serious social and economic problems in this country. There is mounting anxiety about the widening income gap and growing discontent with the government's inability to provide sufficient administrative services to people in trouble. In order to bolster the social safety net in the face of the current fiscal constraints, it is essential to create an ID number system.

The administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to draw up a plan for integrated tax and social security reform in June. The ID number system will be a key component of the plan. The policy discussion on the proposal should be started quickly to alleviate public anxiety as much as possible.

More than anything else, it is important to take effective safety measures including steps to prevent leaks of personal information.

In its interim report released late last year, the government's working group on the policy initiative proposed an array of measures to protect personal information. They include the establishment of a system that allows citizens to know who accessed their information and when. The panel also proposed the creation of an independent body to monitor the uses of the ID number system and the enactment of legislation to ban uses for purposes other than those designated and to mete out rigorous punishments for violations. Preventing the unauthorized use or disclosure of this personal data is absolutely essential.

Another challenge is to create a plan to ensure effective remedial measures will be taken quickly when a breach occurs to limit the damage.

There are many issues that need to be addressed, including some knotty ones. But that should not be used as an excuse for delaying the introduction of the system, allowing opponents a fresh opportunity to campaign against it. The government needs to clarify issues to be addressed and work out steps to deal with them and then give the public detailed explanations about them.

It would be unacceptable for the government, in a rush to introduce the ID system, to emphasize only its benefits while neglecting to discuss potential downsides.

Securing fair redistribution of wealth requires a system that can collect and manage information about individual citizens' assets as well as income. The countries that have adopted such ID number systems use different approaches to keep tabs on individual income and assets. In this age of globalized financial markets, it is particularly important for the system to be able to track down information about overseas accounts.

Now, we frequently transmit personal information over the Internet for various purposes. While the convenience of the ID number system has gained wider recognition among the people, the dangers of a networked society have also become widely known.

Exhaustive debate on how to implement the proposed system and how it should be used to protect individual privacies and ensure fairness is a prerequisite for building the public support needed to push the initiative through.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 28