Glitches in Japan's unpopular MyNumber digital ID cards draw a flood of complaints

abcnews.go.com:

The minister charged with an overhaul of this nation’s digitized system to assign a number to all Japanese has apologized, as doctors protested glitches with health insurance and local governments begged for clarity on how to go about handling the prob...

TOKYO — The minister charged with an overhaul of Japan's digitized system to assign a number to everyone living in the country has apologized, as doctors protested glitches with health insurance and local governments begged Thursday for clarity on how to handle the problems.

The MyNumber, or “MaiNa” for short, system has clearly gone afoul.

The government has ordered a total rechecking of MyNumber data, one by one, “mechanically,” as the digital agency put it. The goal is to complete it by the fall, which could be anytime from September to November.

Local governments have to deal with much of the checking work. Officials have met with Digital Minister Taro Kono demanding help. Costs for the review have not been announced, but are expected to total trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars).

Under MyNumber, launched in 2016, people get a card with a photo and embedded IC chip. Officials already are talking about issuing totally new cards in 2026, apparently to start afresh.

After thousands of complaints about mistaken identities related to MyNumber this year alone, Kono's suggestion that the system be renamed set off an uproar.

“We are extremely sorry,” Kono told a special committee in parliament, where opposition lawmakers slammed his efforts as inept. “We will do our best to speedily check the system and win back people's trust,” he said.

With the system already in trouble, a plan to phase out existing health care insurance cards and replace them with MyNumber