My Number Mislinkage with Bank Accounts Found in Japan

Tokyo, May 23 (Jiji Press)--Linkage mistakes of My Number personal identification numbers with bank accounts for receiving public benefits have occurred in multiple local municipalities in Japan, the Digital Agency said Tuesday.

Eleven cases in which a person's My Number ID was linked to a different person's bank account have been confirmed in six municipalities, including the northeastern city of Fukushima, the agency said.

There has been no actual damage from the series of mislinkage cases since no payments of public benefits were made through mistakenly registered bank accounts, according to the agency.

The agency said the errors occurred as local government staff carried out registration procedures for a person using the person's account for a portal site for My Number identification card holders and moved on to the next person without signing out.

The agency's guidance calls on staff to check whether they signed out from a person's My Number portal site account after completing procedures for the person, but staff failed to thoroughly comply with the rule.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]