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| July 26, 2011 |
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| Common Code Number System |
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The Premier's panel, the Social Security Reform Evaluation Headquarters (headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan), formally announced a decision on June 30 to adopt guidelines for 'Single Code System for Social Security and Taxation'. The new code number system relies on the controversial Resident Registration Code Number Network, and the policy is another attempt to put a marking code on every individual who lives in the country.
COMMON CODE NUMBER SYSTEM - A MEANS TO CUT SOCIAL BENEFITS
A Single Package of Social Benefits and Consumption Tax
In the new system a code number is given to every citizen so that the government authorities can control his/her income and social insurance status en bloc. The scheme is called My Number. The government plans to implement it in January, 2015, and a relevant bill will be presented in the 2011 Extraordinary Diet Session to be held in autumn.
The system has been elaborated by the initiative of the Kan government which says that it will be inevitable to grasp an exact income situation of individuals when the government carries out policies to respond to low income people in the wake of a surge of the consumption tax rate. The code number is integrated to 'a single reform package of taxation and social services'.
The code number will be applied in six areas; pensions, medical service, elderly care insurance, welfare, unemployment insurance and taxation. The authority adds to say that in a case of natural disaster, like the March 11 Earthquake, it can be used for repayment of individual's bank deposits and insurance money and that an intense study will be made to expand areas of application from the year 2018.
In the scheme the government will issue to every citizen an ID card with a photograph on: it bears name, address, date of birth, gender and the Common Code Number. You could use it as an ID at the administrative offices and hospitals, or when you make an electronics application through internet or confirm tax payment records.
The government authority stresses its merits; various kinds of information is embodied to a single code, open fairness prevents failure of tax collection and benefit payment and it reduces paper work in the administrative service for inhabitants, for instance a resident certificate.
In fact, however, the real purpose of the common code system lies in control and surveillance of people: the government is authorized to check personal data to strip privacy of a citizen by using the code as a master key.
Social Services Will Be Calculated
The system will enable the authority to check tax payment and benefit data of every person in a second. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan used to claim it is essential to 'avoid unnecessary, excessive benefit payments'.
In other words, the System is designed to apply 'an individual-based accounting practice to social services': it means that a recipient's benefit should remain within the total sum that he/she pays as taxes and insurance premiums. The concept violates principles of social security. Nevertheless, it is advocated by the Nippon Keidanren (=Japan Business Federation).
False Identification Will Be Easy
The system pertains to exposing personal data: private businesses can take advantage of them. It will be used not only for tax and benefit procedures, but also for bank transactions, clinical services, job hunting and commencement and a purchase of a residence or a car. You will be obliged to show the ID card.
That means not only the state and municipal authorities but also banks, hospitals and other business entities will pile up data bases on this system to keep. The code number will be used extensively in both of the public and private sectors. Privacy will stop being privacy. A crime may be committed easily by using false identification, or someone may use identification of another person for an illicit purpose.
The Common Code Number System is laid out to put a tax increase and a benefit reduction into a single package and it will deprive a citizen of privacy .The system must not be introduced.
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