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Japan IDs All Its Citizens
Edis Krad writes "While RealID in the US is a threat whose implementation is a ways in the future, the Japanese long ago implemented something similar; and there has been very little complaint raised about it. The Juki Net (Residents Registration Network — link in Japanese) has been silently developing since 1992. The system involves an 11-digit unique number to identify every citizen in Japan, and the data stored against that ID covers name, address, date of birth, and gender. Many Japanese citizens seem to be oblivious that such a government-run network exists. Juki Net had a spotlight shone on it recently because a number of citizens around the country sued against it, citing concerns of information misuse or leakage. And while an Osaka court ruled against the system, the Japanese Supreme Court has just ruled it is not unconstitutional, on the grounds that the data will be used in a bona-fide manner and there's no risk of leakage. While there is a longstanding registration system for us foreigners in Japan, what astonishes me is how the government can secretly implement such a system for its citizens, and how little concern the media and Japanese citizens in general display about the privacy implications."
I live in continental Europe and I have an ID card. I know that exactly the same style of ID cards exists in at least Belgium and Germany. Why is it a problem? You get to use it only when to prove that you're actually you. Like when voting and when I did an exam to try to become a state servant (I failed, if you really want to know.)
I also have a number that uniquely identifies me. It is the equivalent the social security number and it consists of my birthdate in format yyyymmdd followed by a three digit number. Unlike in the US, knowing this number means nothing. It's not secret... It isn't displayed on my ID card though.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
The Japanese don't have such an irrational fear of databases and information. In part because of their culture (which is not so contaminated with outside influences such as cultures that most slashdot readers might be familiar with) and also in part because they are not subject to the US constitution (gasp, shock). Here's an idea: perhaps the Japanese are able to determine which laws they want? I know, a radical idea - they didn't even consult the UN before implementing this.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
In reading this story, I wonder about how individuals raised in cultures different than my own (read: USA) view issues of personal privacy vs. common good. Broadly speaking, we in the states tend to defend a "rights" theory; that our personal rights can, in some cases, trump the good of society. However, the idea of a populace giving in some personal rights for those of the supposed good lies on the spectrum of utilitarianism; that by putting in place a universal ID, it's necessary to give up some personal rights, in order to protect the largest number of people.
But, I'd be interested to know about how others compare this issue to the various historical theories of ethics...
I have often wondered what life would be like if we didn't have the phrases "Orwellian" or "mark of the beast" in our vocabulary? Is our life (in America) better, more free because of our mindset from reading Orwell? Or is it worse because our paranoia about becoming "orwellian" hampers real progress in using technology to improve our lives? Thus also "mark of the beast?" If it were not for the stigma (pun intended) of being subjugated to a totalitarian government/economic system, how much better could commerce and governance be with a "master table" of PIDs?
Go for it: List the pros or cons of each scenario... But just remember, all those pros go away when the people controlling the database go bad. And they do.
As for us in Costa Rica (not Puerto Rico), in Central America (in the middle of the whole continent), an ID system called "cédula de identidad" has been used since some decades ago for all citizens (a Costa Rican is a citizen once he/she is 18 years old). A 9-digits number is related with full name, gender, date and place of birth. Recent "cedulas" even include a version of one's signature (recollected by a writing tablet). It is an necessary ID for every kind of (bureaucratic) transactions (voting at the national and local elections, signing in for a bank account, obtaining a driver licence, etc.). Most of us are not concerned about the privacy issue (specially because the Government itself isn't Orwellian at all).
"Nature is indifferent to our values, and can only be understood by ignoring our notions of good and bad." (B. Russell)
I'm something as odd as a hardcore libertarian Swede. I moved to Silicon Valley in 1995, in small part because of that.
Like most other developed nations, Sweden has a system much like Japan's, that keeps track of who people are where they live. This results in vastly superior service to the citizens. You don't have to register to vote, you can get a passport in under an hour, and in general you only have to tell one governmental agency something once, and the others will also get the information on a need-to-know basis.
And here is my point:
The US government already knows everything about you. They even read your email and tap your phone at will. But since they have to pretend not to, we have to keep sending in the same information again and again, things take forever and are often done wrong. We have the worst of both worlds, with little privacy and little functioning services.
Americans fight this kind of system thinking they're protecting privacy. They're not. Their privacy is long gone, and they're just wasting their effort. If you have the energy to fight for freedom, use it where it counts. This, unfortunately, is not such a place.
The difference is that the Japanese government actually cares about and cares for its citizens - all of them. The proof is everywhere: national health insurance; immediate and effective disaster response; a public transportation system second-to-none; national renewable initiatives. Sure, there are fowl ups and there are crooks, but compared to the criminal maladministration in the US, I'd take Japanese government any day, and I'd gladly sign up and participate in a national ID. The difference is trust.
Yes Mr. 909743 you are right!
We should eliminate lastnames as well since they can relate people to other people. That's very risky in terms of privacy.
Posts like this piss me off. First lets get some statistics right:
/. don't have 9-5 jobs. They care about their work life and believe in what they are doing. In fact, they often find it strange that western people don't like their job. I'm not saying that all people in Japan like their job. But my experience is that their devotion to it leads to a higher level of enjoyment than what I've seen in other places I've worked.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/
Japan does not have the highest suicide rate in the world. It doesn't even come close. According to this study, in 1999 the suicide rate was 50.6 per 100,000 people. This compares to 21.7 for the US and 15.1 in the UK. So it seems very high. However, compared to Austria (37.1), Beglium (40.1), Finland (45.5), etc it's not exactly running away wild. Countries with internal political strife have considerably higher levels (nearing 100 for some countries). So it's bad, but not ridiculously bad.
Now, let's take some other things into consideration. This data was taken in 1999 - 1 year after the collapse of several Japanese banks and the end of the "Job for life" policy in Japan. Yes, before 1998, nobody ever got laid off. Ever. In the history of the country. So in 1998 and 1999, people were getting laid off frequently. Hence suicide rates climbed dramatically.
Second you have to consider the culture. Unlike the US and the UK, suicide is *accepted* in Japanese society. Just the other day the father of one of my colleagues killed himself. His wife had died earlier and he just couldn't cope with looking after himself. Japanese men, in general, are totally dependent upon their wives. Many of them die by their own hand right after their wives die. This is sad, but normal here. In fact, I heard about my colleague's father at the morning staff meeting. No social stigma to the event at all.
So no matter what, suicide rates are going to be higher here than in the US or the UK. It's just seen as reasonable here that if you don't want to live, you don't have to (and personally I have a hard time coming up with a good argument against that).
Now to tackle the other things you have said. Life in Japan is *not* hard. It is *not* strict. It is *not* sad. This has got to be one of the happiest places I've ever lived in my life (and I've lived int the US, Canada and the UK). Yes, people work hard. The saying here is that "Otoko wa shigoto", or "Man is work". But they *like* to work. I do too. Hell, most of the people here on
Also, Japanese life is *full* of play. Seriously, every single weekend there's a festival of something or other near by. And people grab their families and have a blast. In fact one of the most interesting things I found about living in Japan is that people take their children *everywhere*. And Japanese children by and large *extremely* happy. Again the culture is just different. School can be tough. But it doesn't have to be. You choose to work as hard as you want. You get rewarded for your efforts. Japanese schools are agressively streamed. So the functions of the schools (especially high school) is different depending on the composition of the students.
For instance, in the high school where I work, the level is fairly low (bottom 20% in the prefecture I think). So the focus in school is on how to make a positive contribution to society. Seriously. Some of the kids take their tests and whatever seriously, but most don't. You *can* get to University from here, but only about 25% do. The rest will become fishermen, policemen, firemen, housewives/husbands, shop keepers, etc. These students are taught that their role is valuable. That they can make Japan better simply by making someone's day a little nicer.
Japan is far from unhappy. I don't agree with everything that happens here. But I have to vehomently disagree with
In the US we don't have a national ID system, and we didn't in 1938 either. But that didn't stop the Japanese internment. Nor did it stop the government from rapidly creating a monstrosity of a system which indexed all possible threats to the government living on American soil from 1939 to 1978.
That was in 1938 when everything was still pen and paper and the government couldn't just pressure any given large corporation for their database of information. Its really silly to assume that something like that couldn't easily happen today, if its not already happening. Yes, having a federal unique identifier for everyone would make illegal persecution easier, but it would not make it much easier. At most it would hasten any coming storm by a matter of a few days, and by that point the people are either going to rise up or just take it anyways.
So bring on my national ID: I'd love to have my life's history of medical records easily accessed and quickly prove that I'm an American citizen at the airport. Just make the central database contain only my index number, name, birthday and biometric verification data (fingerprint, signature, retina, etc, with allowances to grow with innovation), but absolutely nothing else, not even gender. Then let every branch of federal and state government keep its own database using my index number as the indexing key. That alone ought to keep enough confusion in the system to kneecap any clandestine manhunts to only what is going on today. Then let there also be thick legislated walls of non-interoperability between those databases and mandated non-public access with both carrying penalties of capital treason for misuse for everyone involved from bottom to top. Finally let every citizen be able to fully view and even challenge their own entries from every branch of government. Ideally I would like to see this implemented in the form of a constitutional amendment so that any given congress can't tinker with the system just because their party got majority this year, but that may be overboard.
Corportate abuses can easily be fixed with legislation, i.e.: criminally enforced non-descrimination based on health records with extremely stiff penalties (say $5 mil + annual inflation per abuse).
My point is simply this: Every single government on this planet is capable of massive abuses. It doesn't matter what tools are available to it, the abuses will happen if they are allowed to happen. Thus, for every citizen, the price of liberty truly is eternal vigilance.