130,000 My Number Accounts Tied to Family Members

Jiji Press

17:11 JST, June 8, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Digital minister Taro Kono said Wednesday that there have been about 130,000 cases of bank accounts linked to My Number personal identification numbers for receiving public benefits being registered for payments to family members, housemates or others.

Kono also told a virtual press conference that 748 cases have been confirmed in which people registered My Number-linked bank accounts for receiving benefits to other people by mistake.

Those cases were found after the Digital Agency looked at some 54 million My Number-linked bank accounts registered to receive public benefits.

The agency will ask people to register their own bank accounts to receive public benefits if their current accounts are linked to family members or others.

It will also request by mail that the holders of accounts mistakenly linked to other people take steps to correct the status.

The agency is calling on people to register accounts under their own names, saying that if the account name and the person’s name are different, benefits will not be provided.

It plans to establish a system as early as June 2025 to automatically check the names of bank account holders against the names on their My Number cards.

A series of problems involving My Number and My Number cards has come to light recently, including cases in which cardholders obtained residency certificates for other people through a My Number card service at convenience stores.