Japan trials student enrollment verification and identity verification using My Number cards

Japan’s Digital Agency is working on expanding the use of My Number ID.

The 12-digit My Number ID has replaced health insurance cards in Japan as the government pushes for adoption. Now, tests have been conducted to use My Number ID for the digitization of student credentials.

Japan’s Digital Agency believes this will achieve labor cost savings and convenience for users, forgoing certificate issuing and verification agencies, which are manned, and realizes “human-friendly digitalization” in a society facing population decline.

Students in Japan can buy student discount tickets, at railways and university counters for example, but the digital agency held a demonstration to check the possibility of implementing identity verification using My Number ID. A face biometric system is also utilized.

The demonstration allowed for the verification of student status by issuing a digital certification of enrollment as a Verifiable Credential (VC) into the student’s digital wallet. On a service operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West), students receive a student discount using the VC issued in the demonstration, and use the ticket to pass through a face biometrics system to enter. Students can also present the ticket on their smartphone.

JR West, which is headquartered in Osaka, will continue to collaborate with Osaka University to demonstrate the advantages of the service to students and improve the scheme. In the future, the company expects to take the lead in implementing the use of My Number ID to prove credentials and verify identity, including in WESTER ID (JR West’s common ID) as there is high demand for discounts, according to the company.

JR West, which supports regional infrastructure, has received support from NTT Communications and ITOCHU Techno-Solutions to become the first domestic railway operator to offer infrastructure necessary for a digital society as a service. JR West has Mobility Auth Bridge (MAB), an ID service that allows users access to various local government and company services participating in MAB with a single ID.

The OpenID Foundation and the OpenID Foundation Japan have welcomed the pilot project for the implementation for students using verifiable credentials. The adoption of technical specifications, and their promotion in Japan by JR West and the National Institute of Informatics, is a “highly significant” development, according to the foundation.

The Japanese government has provided funding to the OpenID Foundation, and its Japan equivalent, for the development of certification programs that verify proper implementation of the technical specifications provided by the OpenID Foundation. The Digital Credentials Protocols Working Group of the OpenID Foundation is currently working on technical specifications for issuing and presenting verifiable credentials – “OpenID for Verificable Credential Issuance” and “OpenID for Verifiable Presentations” – which have been adopted already by the European Digital Identity Wallet project.

Nobuchiyo Kishi, Parliamentary Secretary for Digital Affairs, Digital Agency, said that they would continue to work with the OpenID Foundation Japan to “explore possibilities for social implementation and international collaboration.”

Article Topics

digital ID  |  face biometrics  |  identity verification  |  My Number  |  OpenID Foundation  |  student ID  |  verifiable credentials