Japan to Assign National ID Numbers to Every Resident

Bill for ID number program clears Diet

Another country, more numbers and another database as Japan seeks to join the long list of countries who have tagged their citizens with a unique ID number.

The Diet passed a bill Friday to set up a system that will assign an identification number to every citizen to improve government management of income, social security and tax information despite public concerns about the potential for data abuse.
The House of Councilors voted for the bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives earlier this month.
The system, to be introduced in January 2016, will assign a “my number” to each citizen starting around fall 2015 to integrate all of their financial information. This is expected to help public offices collect information more accurately and make it easier to distribute welfare benefits and tax credits to citizens.
Individual ID numbers will be assigned to foreign residents as well, except for short-term visitors.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/25/national/bill-for-id-number-program-clears-diet/#.UZ_rwEBwqSo