My Number-Ho no Chikujo Kaisetsu (Annotations to the My Number Act [Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures])

The current volume revises Annotations to the Number Act (2nd edition) but with a different title. This is because when the volume was originally published, the abbreviation, “the Number Act” was widely used in the government but the term is hardly used today, instead, another term, “the My Number Act” is widely used.
 
As some major revisions were made to the My Number Act after the publication of the old edition, the current edition contains additional comments on these revisions. More concretely, the current edition focuses on revisions to the My Number act made in reference to “the Act to Partially Amend the Act on the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems” (Act No. 36 of 2017) which strengthens the central government’s authority over the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems, “the Act to Partially Amend the Family Register Act” (Act 17 of 2019) which enables sharing of information related to family register based on the My Number Act, and “the Act on the Arrangement of Related Laws for the Formation of a Digital Society” (Act 37 of 2021) accompanying the centralization of regulations regarding personal information protection.
 
Although the section of Act 17 of 2019, which enables sharing of family register-related information based on the My Number Act, and the revision to the My Number Act which corresponds to the centralization of personal information protection regulations of local authorities and local incorporated administrative agencies included in Act 37 of 2021 have not come into force as of the time of writing, the volume provides comments assuming these provisions have come into force.
 
The volume provides comments not only on the My Number Act but also on its enforcement ordinance, its enforcement regulations and the order on the individual number, the individual number card, and the provision of specific personal information stipulated by the Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures. These acts and regulations are found in the appendix of the volume so that the reader can refer to them to ensure his/her understanding while reading it.
 
Since the My Number Act is difficult to understand, the volume uses figures and tables, wherever necessary, to facilitate the reader’s comprehension.
 
Most of what the My Number Act stipulates relates to the protection of the individual number and specific personal information, and a good grounding in the Act on the Protection of Personal Information is required to understand it. In particular, to comprehend the special provision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information stipulated by Article 30 of the Act and the special provision regarding the recording of information provision stipulated by Article 31 of the Act, a good understanding of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information is essential. I hope my other volume, New Annotations to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, could be of some help to the reader in this regard.
 

(Written by UGA Katsuya, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2022)