FAQ My Number Card
2022.10.20
As there are many questions about My Number Card, please let me help with some answers to FAQs
Q. Should I keep My Number Card with me, or put safely away in my home?
A: The services you will be able to take advantage of from the My Number Card will continue to increase. Therefore, you should keep it with you and take good care of it as you would your bank and credits cards, your Residence Card and your driver’s license.
Q. Is it OK for people to see the information on my My Number Card?
A: Yes, it is.
It is not possible to withdraw or misuse the information on your My Number Card. It alone, even with your name, is not enough to complete any transaction. When using the My Number Card the person assisting the transaction is obligated to compare your image to the photo on the card, or in the case of electronic transactions such as obtaining certificates, the IC Chip within the card is used along with your secret PIN code. So, the actual number on the My Number Card is not used. In short, the My Number Card alone cannot do anything but relies on the IC Chip or your face/photo combination.
Q: Is it true that if I lose my My Number Card, someone else can read my personal information such as taxes, pensions, and medical care information contained in the IC chip? If so, we shouldn’t just walk around with it, isn’t that right?
A: The IC Chip has the following information stored on it: My Number, Name, Address, Date of Birth, Gender, Photo, Electronic Certificate and Residence Code, which generates your My Number. No other information is stored in the chip. Information such as your taxes, pension information, and medical records cannot be obtained from the chip if another person tries to access your lost card.
Q: Aren’t there any cases when a lost My Number Card was misused by the person who found it?
A: Keep in mind that the My Number Card only has those 4 basic types of information on it and the electronic certificate of you. Nothing overly sensitive is on it. Anytime you use your My Number card, such as when you want to access the MynaPortal, your PIN is required in the same way as your cash card.
In the unlikely event you do lose your My Number Card, you can call the toll-free number 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to suspend its use completely. That number is 0120-95-0178.
Furthermore, if you enter your PIN incorrectly more than a set number of times, your account is automatically locked.
To further protect the information, if someone is trying to illegally access the IC Chip in some other way, the chip will break, and the card becomes completely unreadable.
Please be very careful with your PIN, and not reveal it to anyone. This is a key point.
Q: Isn’t it possible for my personal information linked to My Number Card to be leaked to others?
A: No, it is not.
The My Number system is NOT a system that keeps or manages your information in a centrally located place. Each administrative agency manages and operations the information independently and works with the information relevant only to their operations. The system is decentralized. You can always check the use and exchange of information by the various officials and agencies using your MynaPortal to verify this.
My Number will not, and cannot, be used to share information between administrative agencies. These types of exchanges are coordinated through uniquely encoded codes. Therefore, with the information decentralized or compartmentalized, it is not possible to access or extract personal information across agencies.
