Japan seeks Singapore’s experience in national digital ID rollout

Japan has expressed its willingness to learn from Singapore’s experience in the rollout of a national digital ID system as the two countries hope to boost their cooperation on digitalization.

This came under focus recently as Japan’s Minister for Digital Transformation Taro Kono and his Singaporean counterpart Josephine Teo had talks during the former’s working visit to Singapore, per Kyodo News.

The cooperation is based on a bilateral agreement which the two countries entered into last year with the main objective being to allow digital collaboration in different areas including digital identity, cybersecurity and related services.

The outlet cites the Singaporean Minister as saying that she and her Japanese peer had lengthy discussions on how they can expand the digital cooperation to areas such as data protection and data-sharing across borders, interoperability, and other digital ID-related aspects.

Singapore is considerably advanced when it comes to digital transformation, notably in digital governance, with thousands of government services accessible via digital means.

It is expected that its experience will be useful for Japan which is currently facing issues with its ‘My Number’ digital ID system which it is trying to popularize as a compulsory functional ID in replacement of health insurance cards.

Other similar digital cooperation agreements signed by Singapore with Philippines and South Korea include collaboration on digital ID interoperability, among other issues.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital identity  |  Japan  |  Singapore