Study Group on Operation of Character Requirements in local governments Information Systems (6th)

Overview

Date and Time: Tuesday, December 26, 2023 (2023) from 10:00 to 12:00
Order of business
1. Review of the 5th Review Meeting
2. Treatment of characters used in non-conforming family registry
3. Provision of basic font files
4. Other

Materials

Summary of proceedings

Date

Tuesday, December 26, 2023 (2023), from 10:00 to 12:00

Location

Digital Agency Boardroom / Online

Attendees

*Honorific titles omitted

Chairman

Masahiko Shoji (Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Musashi University)

Members

Atsushi Ogino (Expert, local governments Information Systems Organization)
Tatsuo Kobayashi (Chairman of the Character Information Technology Promotion Council)
Shuji Goto (President and Representative Director, area Information Technology Laboratory Co., Ltd.
Hiroyuki Sasahara, Professor, Waseda Daigaku. Shakai Kagakubu
Nobuaki Hayashi (Senior Manager, Usuki City Health Health Division)
Satoshi Harada (Kyoto Sangyo 21 Promotion of DX Supervisor and CISO (Absence))

Associate member

Masahiro Kamanaka (INES Corporation)
Masanori FUJINO (NEC Corporation)
Hiroaki Aoki (Hitachi Systems, Ltd.)
Eisuke Shikata (Fujitsu Japan Limited (Attendance by proxy))
Ryota Takaiwa (FUJIFILM System Service Co., Ltd. (attendance by proxy))
Yuki Hayase (Ryobi Systems Co., Ltd.)
Masakazu Yoshida (RYOMO SYSTEMS CO.,LTD.)

Observer

Yutaka Maruo (Assistant Director of the Local Digital Platform Planning Office Division, Resident Systems Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Masanori Takashi Osanai (Deputy Director of the Local Digital Platform Planning Office Division, Population Systems Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Hiroshi Aono (Section Head of the Digitization Promotion Office, Planning Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Tax Bureau)
Shohei Hasegawa (Administrative Officer of the Digitization Promotion Office, Planning Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Tax Bureau)
Takuya Hazama (Section Chief of the First Civil Affairs Division, Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of
Tomohiro Ohtani (Section Head of the Enrollment Support Section, Educational Support and Teaching Materials Division, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Elementary and Secondary education Bureau)
Satoyuki Shimazoe (Assistant to the Director of the Office of Counselor in Charge of Information Systems of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
Hiroomi Sunose (Assistant to the Director of the Office of Counselor in Charge of Information Systems of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare

Agenda

Review of the 5th Review Meeting
Treatment of characters used in non-conforming family registry
Provision of basic font files
Other

Proceedings

At the 6th meeting, looking back on the 5th Review Meeting as a matter to be reported, it was mentioned that it was assumed that the Temporary Measures (PUP) would be used until the international standardization was completed as a provisional measure until the international standardization was completed, and the Secretariat reported that it was considering a method in which the people and local government can easily understand the method of dissemination and public relations.
The Secretariat provided an explanation on "Treatment of characters used in nonconforming family registry" and "Provision of basic font files" based on Material 1.

Handout

Materials: Study Meeting Materials on the Operation of Character Requirements in local governments Information Systems

Question and

Member: 's "Main Opinions on Dissemination and Public Relations of administrative operation Standard Characters," there is an opinion that "I think it is important to share the recognition of the difference between the concept of' character style' and the concept of' character shape.' In this regard, the Report of the National Language Subcommittee of the Council for Culture,' Guidelines on Character and Shape of list of Kanji for common use' (edited by the Agency for Cultural Affairs) is considered to be the most reliable." For example, in family registry and resident records, two types of' yoshi' are widely used, Tsuchiyoshi () and Samuraiyoshi (), but according to the concept of list of Kanji for common use described on pages 41 and 91 of the "Guidelines," these are merely "differences in design." On the other hand, in family registry administration, according to the Chinese-Japanese dictionary, etc., these are processed as "the relationship between secular characters and canonical characters." As an individual problem, if such Chinese characters are actually used in surnames and names, there may be a situation in which people are confused at the counter, etc. in the future, so I think it is necessary to take basic measures such as creating a Q & amp; A for detailed points.

Secretariat: .

Associate member: Will the materials, they were organized as "main opinions." Will you share other opinions and answers in the future?

Secretariat: We would like to present responses to all the opinions received. We would like to consider how to respond, including how to send it to the committee members who received it.

Member: 's "2. Dissemination and public relations," it is written that "In disseminating information to local government, we believe that public relations are necessary, including how to respond to objections from residents." When I see candidates for administrative operation standard characters, there are cases in which there are code positions corresponding to UCS, even if many are not included in MJ characters. The other is that there are many cases in which it is clear that handwriting is a typo when it is digitized. It is necessary to respect what has been cherished by residents as an expression of their identity since their ancestors' generation, and I understand that objections from residents sometimes come. However, in cases where this is not the case, for example, the Ministry of Justice shows that "it is fine to correct the street characters of family registry into regular characters." Therefore, when residents raise objections, it says, but if they do not raise objections, I think it is necessary to take appropriate measures as before.

Secretariat: also wish to use characters that are easier to understand, for example, with fewer strokes. I think there are various ways to confirm such matters individually, but I would like to organize policies while talking with the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Member: "2. Dissemination and public relations," the name and address printed on the face of the My Number Card ticket now use the common characters of the Juki Net. Regarding this, there are also inquiries from residents to each city, ward, town, and village, saying, "The shape of my character is not this," even if it is not an objection. Some inquiries even come to the ground, saying, "Why is it in this shape?" Although the explanation says, "This type of character is used in the Juki Net," from the perspective of the city, ward, town, and village, it is often heard that a backing that can be used for the explanation of the character is necessary, so I would like you to consider it when disseminating and publicizing it.

Secretariat: was made in the opinions of the members. Regarding the administrative operation standard characters this time, there was a thorough discussion at the MOJ review meeting that "this character is included in this." Since this character was adopted in accordance with the concept and the inclusion criteria, I would like to clearly show that point.

Member: , "Main opinions received on the dissemination and public relations of administrative operation standard characters," we would like to have a dialogue with Digital Agency before finalizing the content of the public relations, on the premise that MOJ and local government will properly come to the forefront. I believe that local government will also say, "There are examples that if we actively provide such explanations, understanding will advance," so we would like to proceed with such expectations.

Second, as I have been feeling for some time, the characters used in the Juki Net Unified Character Set, the Basic Resident Register, and other characters also exist in family registry. Is it correct to understand that all of these are included in the set of administrative operation Standard Characters? Even though they are included, I think it will probably be necessary to discuss the fact that the Juki Net character sets remain for a long time. If there are any misunderstandings I have, I would like you to point out them and share the situation with me.

Secretariat: , the experience of local government up to now and the points you are currently struggling with, we would like to promote public relations this time while taking advantage of the opinion that "it would be good if there were such a thing."

Second, the administrative operation standard characters are basically positioned to include all the family registry unified characters and Juki Net unified characters up to now. In addition, the current MJ did not include some of the family registry unified characters, but the administrative operation standard characters include some characters that were not included, so I would like you to be assured about that.

Member: Study Group, I believe that we have been explaining from the beginning that "We do not want the explanation to be pushed to the site in local government." However, I believe that it is effective to proceed together with local government, which is the point of contact between the national government and the residents. I would like local government to participate from such a perspective.

Regarding the second point, I think it is important to re-organize how the characters in the Juki Net will change from the existing ones and to thoroughly publicize them to local government and residents. In the end, I think it should be stopped to proceed with the conventional code system even if it takes time, so that the code of Kanji and characters in the system owned by all local government will be operated by the same code system. There are many things to be done for that, but I would like to see progress made while clearly indicating milestones.

Member: I agree with the last story. It is also about international standardization. Regarding letters and names, I think it is important to sort out what is planned and what needs to be done in the future, even if only roughly, so that we can make a forecast while setting a time frame. I would like you to sort out what will become of letters not only for the time being or for several years.

In that sense, there is no direct relationship with the plenary session, but the topic of "furigana of names" is also moving at the same time. Next year or the year after next, there is a possibility that various opinions and complaints will come out. I think it is better to proceed with it as a public relations strategy for names, kanji, etc., including them.

Member: I would like to talk about what this situation is like from the perspective of local government, based on the actual situation of my local government. Our local government has a population of about 200,000, and the number of family registry is about 65,000. We computerized it in 2005, and out of 65,000 family registry, there were less than five family registry who said, "I don't want to change Chinese characters." How do we respond to them in the actual field? We manage them on paper. We explain that "Because we don't computerized it, we can't receive the benefits of services such as acquiring family registry certificates at convenience stores." But we are responding on paper because we want to use our Chinese characters as they are. On the other hand, looking back, those who were rejected were resisted in family registry, but the resident's name and election notice, etc. were changed to external characters and registered at the resident's name side, and the notice, etc. were output in the form of external characters, and the Chinese characters were slightly changed, but there seems to be no problem from the viewpoint of the residents.

Based on this opportunity, I think it is better for local government to recognize that we should approach people who have once refused to change their Chinese characters again and ask them, "Why don't we make resident cards and election notices more like regular characters?" At the same time, we should ask family registry to change their Chinese characters to new ones. This time, we will create Chinese characters based on the law, and there is a backyard where we will replace them, so I feel that local government will be easy to proceed with local government.

Secretariat: , but as you said, I felt that it would be a good idea to "start from resident records and election notices." I would like to consider resolving the issue from both sides while consulting with the Ministry of Justice.

Member: As a question on the current efforts and actual situation in local government, he said, "family registry is doing it on paper because it is judged to be unsuitable for computerization," but he also said, "In addition, we are responding to resident records by creating a private character." Is it correct to understand that the private character is an original private character that is not included in MJ +?

Member: is probably correct. My way of thinking is that even if we increase it with the positive part of MJ +, we will not make the non-revised part of this treatment, so I don't think it will be a one to-one matching. I think there may be traditions and legends when computerizing from paper family registry, but the difference in design is between Hanel and Tomel in Kanji, so if we can firmly make the backyard of "This is the character design prepared by the government. Please choose from among them," we can explain to the residents, and I think this case must be taken as an opportunity.

Member: Reform Nonconforming family registry. I think some people will be convinced to replace one kanji with another, and some will not. We are also involved in the identification of characters by making repeated guesses after looking at the character information, but to be honest, it is quite a difficult problem. Since the Meiji period, the Ministry of Justice has been able to understand the fact that the family registry administration has stipulated that "incorrect characters and abbreviated characters shall not be listed in the family registry." On the other hand, in fact, nearly 10,000 characters have been found, including those that are not well understood and are not known at all whether they are characters or not, and we are working to identify these characters. Therefore, the first problem is the concept of characters itself, and it has been conventional to use a Chinese-Japanese dictionary to make a judgment, but there are tens or hundreds of Chinese-Japanese dictionaries, and it is true that there is a considerable difference in the concept of incorrect characters. Therefore, there is a possibility that someone will say, "It is not a wrong character in my house," and there may be some grounds other than the Chinese-Japanese dictionary. Therefore, I feel that there is a big wall that hinders digitization between the goal of an e-government that does not leave a single person behind and the actual "incorrect characters." law

It seems that there are some typographical errors in both MJ and family registry. While determining what is a typographical error, it is necessary to consider whether the problem can be solved in a way that minimizes dissatisfaction as much as possible. As for the cause of this problem, family registry was conventionally handwritten, but based on it, the Basic Resident Register was computerized first, and at that time, the presence or absence of dots and tomehane were faithfully raised in Mincho style. After that, family registry was computerized later, and the font and design were unified there, so it is thought that the difference in font and shape between Juki Net and family registry was created. I spoke to provide some information and share my recognition of the problem.

Secretariat: As you pointed out, while respecting the two concepts, I would like to decide what should be decided precisely here. In particular, this is one big opportunity, so I would like to decide here without procrastinating on this. Without procrastinating, I would like to resolve the non-conforming family registry, and determine and internationalize the administrative operation standard characters, so I would like to ask for your cooperation.

Member: . What do you think?

Observer: Regarding the characters of We would like to thank you for your opinion. As you said, cooperation from municipalities is important in eliminating nonconforming family registry. Therefore, we would like to proceed with the elimination of nonconforming land, while giving priority to those that can be computerized, while the Ministry of Justice provides information and cooperation.

Member: , I would like to make two points. I think it was a great evidence that the fact that there are about 10,000 non-conforming family registry has been found by the Ministry of Justice. At the time of the computerization of family registry, about 20 years ago, it was said that "there will be about 1-2% of non-conforming family registry." However, the number of family registry announced by the Ministry of Justice on January 1 this year is about 52 million, and about 10,000 family registry fall under the category of non-conforming family registry, so it is very small. I think this may be due to the progress of the understanding of the people concerned, but in the sense of eliminating non-conforming family registry, I would like to ask these people to consider special reform systems and reasons for those who have been non-conforming since before the reform while advancing digitalization this time, and at the same time, I would like to make a PR to family registry before the reform by saying, "We can take it in this form and image." In terms of replacing the previously used characters, if people perceive that "the characters we have been using for a long time were wrong," there will be great dissatisfaction, so I will carefully explain that "it is very important to respond to digitalization firmly at family registry in order to create an administrative system to promote digitalization nationwide." I would like the government and local government to proceed together, so I would like to consider a special revised explanation. family registry

Regarding the second point, it is said that the resident register of the person who does not conform to the reform is computerized by creating a private character in local government, but in the end, it can be completed without problems by processing in local government, but it is understood that problems have occurred in the age when it is connected by a network. I also think that not only family registry but also the private character of the resident register should be eliminated. I would like to confirm with the Secretariat about the recognition and arrangement of this just in case, and do you think that the Secretariat should proceed in the direction of eliminating the private character of the resident register?

Secretariat: has decreased, there are still some left, so I thought again that special treatment and explanation are still necessary. I would like to proceed with this together with MOJ and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, but I would like to hear various opinions from people in local government, and I would like to solve the problem by consulting with MOJ about what I have not done until now, whether it is good to use new wisdom in public relations.
As for the second point, the Gaiji of Juki, the administrative operation standard characters this time are based on family registry, but of course, this time, we are working to eliminate Gaiji by promoting identification and standardization. Therefore, regarding Juki characters, we are thinking of having administrative operation standard characters basically identify all of them. I would like to work on eliminating Gaiji while consulting with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in the future.

Member: This time, I think the issue of how to treat the part that has been replaced with the administrative operation standard characters and the family registry that does not conform to the reform as the resident base is a very important part, so I would like you to sort out the direction. I would like Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to think about the direction so that the resident base will not be replaced by the judgment of each local government, and then local government will talk to the residents.

Member: ?

Observer: Regarding the characters of Reform Nonconforming family registry, the characters of family registry and Juki are consistent, and although there is a premise that the Reform Nonconforming family registry will be resolved first, we recognize that it was a suggestion and a question about the period during which it will be resolved.

In that regard, I think it is necessary to think about how to cooperate with the administrative operation standard characters behind the scenes. However, when it is submitted to the residents, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is thinking of submitting a resident record that matches the family registry standard characters, so I think it is necessary to think about whether to show it as an identity part. At the same time, I think it is necessary to think about how to cooperate with the administrative operation standard characters as a communication system and how to cooperate with the administrative operation standard characters.

Member: Materials, it says, "MOJ, in cooperation with Digital Agency, with the aim of eliminating non-conforming family registry, will strongly promote efforts to eliminate non-conforming local government in local government by strengthening publicity and publicity to, etc.", but in fact, I think that it may be necessary to go beyond publicity and publicity. I imagine it is a lot of work, but people may not move just because a poster saying, "You can change it to a different character of MJ +" is posted or a letter is sent. I felt that it is worth doing various help and support associated with them. family registry

In addition, in response to your question, how long will the "elimination of non-conforming family registry" take? Will it be rushed and concentrated in a few years, or will it be 5-10 years, or will it be more long-term, such as making as much effort as possible?

Secretariat: Secretariat would like to make efforts to eliminate standardization in the next two to three years. However, as you have been saying, individual responses will be necessary, so we cannot make a firm commitment to eliminate it in two to three years. Therefore, we will work together with MOJ, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and Digital Agency in the next two to three years as a period for intensive promotion. If there is a compelling need, we would like to proceed based on various things separately.

Member: explained, we would like you to keep the fact that the standard systems are linked by administrative operation standard characters. Therefore, we would like to avoid the flow of foreign characters.

Member: Regarding the basic font file, it was said that it would be provided at the end of the fiscal year before, but it is appreciated that it will be provided about six months earlier.

In addition, regarding the response to IVS, I think it is helpful for vendors to have one file. On the other hand, I have heard that some vendors "could not respond to IVS of MJ and MJ did not spread." Are vendors able to respond to IVS, or if they cannot respond to IVS, are they not thinking about responding to it?

Secretariat: We decided to do it six months later because we wanted to provide it as soon as possible.

In addition, some people may not be familiar with IVS, but I have heard that some vendors are not able to respond to it because it is one of the character designation methods and is a special designation method. We have also taken a questionnaire to vendors, and about one third of them answered "I cannot respond to IVS." Among them, there are major vendors, so I thought that the impact was significant. This is exactly what the Character Information Technology Promotion Council and we are considering, and I have heard that the Character Information Technology Promotion Council will consider responses.

Member: It is called' surrogate pair', but one character is expressed by combining two 16-bit characters. At present, there are some characters that cannot be expressed without using surrogate pair even in JIS X 0213. This means that in the specifications that are currently handled by general administrations, the JIS X 0213 character sets are used for characters, but many of them are encoded in Unicode-UCS. In fact, major OSs are also like that. In fact, in the early days, there were many systems that could not support 16-bit surrogate pair, but now that has become OK. In short, there was a time when only 16-bit fixed-length characters were accepted, and' That is not enough, so let's somehow cope with it by combining multiple codes', and it has been established as an architecture. IVS is also combined into one combination of 16-bit + 32-bit or 32-bit + 32-bit in some cases. In addition, from the viewpoint of standard compatibility, there is no problem even if you drop it, but I think it will be a problem. So, basically, I think it can be dealt with without making such a big system change. There are many people who are familiar with such technical information, so I think it is possible to provide something like a technical notebook. procurement

Secretariat: Character Information Technology Promotion Council, we would like to solve the problem together with the Council, such as temporarily assigning the glyphs assigned to IVS to the PUP area.

Member: I would like to remind you about this basic font file. When you checked the duplicate system of family registry, you said, "From the character information base characters, there are an estimated 20000 characters that are not expected to be used in standard compliance system." Is it correct to understand that these 20000 characters are not used in family registry?

Secretariat: , when we looked at the duplicate management system, these 20000 characters were not used in family registry's name or domicile. Therefore, we thought that we could eliminate them first and make them into one font.

Member: characters from local government throughout the country, 20000 characters were not used. Therefore, if Juki follows family registry, I think that 20000 characters will not be used. There is a talk that the number of characters can be discussed in one font file, and I think that the discussion that it can be done in this way, including various situations, is different from the discussion that it can be done technically. I think that it should be considered on the basis that character font files are used as a system in one font file, so I would like to propose that we discuss the system by subtracting 20000 characters, although I will put aside the effort to be able to support IVS. family registry

Member: I would like to emphasize that the use of PUP should be avoided at all costs. We do not know how much negative assets will be left to future generations just by using PUP. If something using PUP is fixed and continues to be used, Japan will be isolated. If it is decided that the basic font file will be used permanently while using PUP, I will not be able to cooperate with this Study Group at that timing, nor will the Council for the Promotion of Character Information Technology. Therefore, it is inevitable to temporarily or gradually "replace IVS with PUP" based on the actual situation. However, I would like you to avoid using IVS permanently as de facto. I would like to emphasize that because it will be extremely negative for Japan.

Member: PUP?

Member: It is that international consistency cannot be taken. Both as an industry and as an administration, we believe that there is no option in any language in the world, not only in Japan, that does not use international standards.

Secretariat: I believe that we have received your opinions on this matter from the beginning of the Study Group, but we are not thinking about using PUP permanently. This decision is also a proposal because Digital Agency must provide interim measures until it can fully respond to IVS, such as allowing vendors to respond to multiple fonts in the future. We would like to proceed on a limited basis after agreeing with local government and vendors based on the fact that PUP is included in a part of the font files provided this time.

Member: materials, there is also a description that "Regarding the character code position, PUP will be temporarily used until the international standardization is completed, but after the international standardization is completed, it is considered that national government subsidies will be required for the cost, etc., of responding to the international standardization in each standard compliance system." I do not know whether this is the national government or the local government, but when providing the provisional file this time, I would like you to obtain permission for use after clarifying the roadmap as to how to smoothly bring it to the proper system without PUP when the international standardization is completed.

Member: As I said earlier, I think a roadmap for the next two to three years is necessary. Standardization is a long-term effort, so if the country, or organization, does it, there will be a change of people. What was shared in this review meeting, but the people may change in a few years, so I would like that to be left.

Associate member: Will the basic font file. Regarding the approximately 20000 characters that are not expected to be used among the character information basic characters, there were approximately 24,000 characters for which conversion characters were not specified in the conversion table to JIS X 0213 that was included in the package when the beta version of MJ + was shown on September 6. Is this applicable? In addition, if so, I think that the additional 9,000 characters of the administrative operation standard characters will be determined at the end of this fiscal year, but at that timing, will the characters not included in the basic font file also be determined?

Secretariat: We hope to finalize the characters that will not be included in the basic font file by the end of the fiscal year.

Associate member: Will the JIS X 0213 and the conversion table "leave characters that are used in family registry but cannot be converted to JIS X 0213"?

Secretariat: I will check there.

Associate member: Will the There is a problem of what to do with characters that cannot be converted, but has it been decided how to handle them? Is it okay to hand over characters that cannot be expressed to external parties? We have not done such a thing in our interactions with external business operators so far, so there is a concern that if we try to follow up on this, there will be a backlash on the business system side.

Member: Regarding mapping of JIS X 0213 conversion, including character information basic characters, what is possible is very limited. To put it the other way around, what is possible can be processed using IVS. Therefore, regarding mapping to JIS X 0213, I would like you to focus on what to do with what cannot be mapped.
Associate Member: On page 11 of the document, it says, "The method of adding from the preliminary character file to the basic font file will be shown at the lower left in the future." What kind of method and timing is assumed?

Secretariat: It will be a matter of future consideration. I would like to manage the basic font file in Digital Agency in the future, so one way to add one character is to create a basic font file after it is added in Digital Agency and distribute it to local government.

However, if it is distributed, operation and mechanism will be required, so we have to consider the mechanism of the system in the future, so I have described it here. In some cases, if it is very strict, there may be a way to add characters unique to local government. However, in that case, it is not very different from the world of external characters so far, so I would like to consider the former if possible. We will consider the details from now on, and we would like to complete the basic font file in the first half of fiscal 2024, so I would like to show it to you as well.

Member: I think it is technically easy both individually and in distribution. In addition to that, the document states that about 20000 characters excluded from the basic font file will be attached to the preliminary character file. Even the font license provided by IPAmj Mincho is cleared by attaching the preliminary file so that it can be always restored, so I think it is a good idea.

Associate member: Will the , we are conducting a pilot project and demonstration projects for identification of administrative operation standard characters. If it is possible to share information on the progress and outlook, please do so.

Secretariat: . At present, we are in the middle of improving the identification accuracy of AI based on the data provided by each local government. After that, we would like to use the tool with improved accuracy to identify the characters once more as of March and return the identification results to the cooperating local government.

Associate member: Will the identification result be returned in March?

Secretariat: It is planned.

Member: If there are no other opinions, I would like to end the proceedings here.

End