Tag - personal-information

 
Menu
Search
 
July 02, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

PERSONAL INFORMATION

The issuance of My Number cards began in 2016.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2025
Number of My Number cards held tops 100 million
The internal affairs ministry said that the number equates to 80.3% of the country’s population.
The government is looking to include nationality in a planned property registration database amid concerns that condominium purchases by foreign citizens have driven up prices.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2025
Japan to require nationality in property registrations
Currently, buyers are not required to report their nationality when registering properties, such as condominiums.
Atsushi Katsuki, CEO of Asahi Group Holdings, at a news conference on Thursday
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2025
Asahi CEO says ransomware attack might have caused 1.9 million data leaks
Exposed data may include email addresses and phone numbers, but credit card information is not included in this data exposure, according to Asahi.
Elon Musk's social media platform X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account's location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 25, 2025
Based in the U.S. or Nigeria? Musk’s X erupts over location feature
The account location information rollout is a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.
With the government's integration of health insurance with My Number cards, conventional health insurance cards will no longer be accepted at clinics and hospitals across Japan from Dec. 2.
JAPAN / Explainer
Nov 17, 2025
What you need to know about the shift to My Number health insurance cards
By integrating health insurance with My Number cards, the government hopes to streamline administration processes, reduce paperwork and make it easier to treat patients.
Demonstrators protest against the Labour government's plans to introduce a digital ID outside of the party's conference in Liverpool, England, on Sept. 28.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2025
Starmer’s digital ID plan tests his powers of persuasion
It might seem odd that U.K. political parties of all flavors have been quick to unite against what they deem a step towards an Orwellian Big Brother state.
Satoru Tezuka, chair of the Personal Information Protection Commission, advocates revising the personal information protection law as part of an effort to balance stronger enforcement with greater flexibility for data utilization.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2025
Japan weighs fines to strengthen personal data protection
Under the current framework, there is no mechanism to claw back profits obtained through illegal data practices, allowing malicious operators to retain their illicit gains.
Security lines at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, in May
WORLD
Oct 25, 2025
U.S. to photograph all noncitizens entering and exiting country
The rule comes amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to expand collection of data on immigrants and foreign nationals in the United States.
The Asahi Group Holdings headquarters complex in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2025
Personal information possibly leaked in cyberattack on Asahi group
The company was hit by a ransomware attack last week in which more than 9,300 data files were stolen by a hacker group calling itself Qilin.
A Qantas Boeing 737-800 plane prepares to land next to a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft preparing to take off at Sydney International Airport in September last year. The Australian airline said Sunday that data from 5.7 million customers stolen in a major cyberattack in July had been leaked online.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 12, 2025
Australian airline Qantas says millions of customers’ data leaked online
Most of the data leaked was names, email addresses and frequent flyer details, the firm said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (center) gestures as he meets Indian traditional dancers during a ceremony for the upcoming Diwali festival in Mumbai on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2025
Starmer looks to India for example on U.K. plan for digital ID
Starmer said his proposed smartphone-based ID was needed to “address the fact that too many people can come to this country to work illegally.”
The My Number health insurance card enables online verification of a patient's eligibility via card readers installed at medical institutions.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2025
My Number health insurance card uptake remains persistently low
Confusion and doubts over the new system have stalled the government’s push to digitalize medical records and services.
Personal Information Protection Commission Chairman Satoru Tezuka in Tokyo on July 15
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 26, 2025
Privacy safeguards needed to help fuel AI growth in Japan, panel chair says
A law revision was postponed during this year’s ordinary parliamentary session amid strong opposition from business circles toward a system involving fines.
Neacher Nazia Hussain (left) holds her child whilst teaching a class at a government school at Rajanpur district in southwestern Punjab province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 22, 2025
Without papers: Ghost lives of millions of Pakistanis
Pakistan launched biometric identification cards in 2000 and registration is increasingly required in all aspects of formal life, especially in cities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building in Washington
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025
U.S. health department hands over Medicaid personal data to ICE
The move marks an escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.
Qantas Airlines Boeing 737 planes sit at the Sydney airport domestic terminal on Tuesday. Qantas said on Wednesday that 6 million customer accounts were accessed in a cyber hack.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025
Australia’s Qantas says 6 million customer accounts accessed in cyber hack
The breach, Australia’s biggest in years, is a setback for an airline looking to rebuild trust after a reputational crisis.
Digital transformation minister Masaaki Taira obtains a certification document using a My Number personal identification card installed on an iPhone in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2025
Functions of Japan’s My Number card now available on iPhones
The Digital Agency plans to gradually expand the smartphone-compatible functions of the card, including the ability to serve as a health insurance card.
Forged My Number cards and other ID cards seized by police are shown at a police station in Tokyo in December 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 20, 2025
Japan to require IC chip ID verification for online bank accounts in 2027
The new rule is designed to prevent fraudulent accounts from being opened under stolen identities.
A pollster for the national census leaves a note at a house in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, in September 2020 after no one answered the door.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 11, 2025
Japan faces staffing challenges for crucial census
The pollster workforce is aging, while increased public concerns over privacy have led more residents to refuse to participate.
Personal data leaks involving My Number personal identification numbers reported under the My Number law climbed to 2,052 cases from 334 in fiscal 2023, according to the Personal Information Protection Commission's report adopted by the Cabinet Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2025
Personal info leak cases hit record high in Japan in fiscal 2024
Personal data leaks involving My Number personal identification numbers reported under the My Number law climbed to 2,052 cases from 334 in fiscal 2023.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency
New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER