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

Overview

Date and time: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 (2023), from 10:00 to 12:00
Location: All town and village halls and online conferences
Agenda:
1. Opening
2. Agenda
  1. Opinions from the first Review Meeting and the results of the national opinion inquiry on the "Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0] Proposal"
  2. Draft "Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0]"
  3. Draft "Overview of MJ +"
  4. Issue Reorganization for Fiscal 2023 Initiatives
3. Other
4. Adjournment

Materials

Relevant policies

Unification and standardization of core business systems in local governments

Summary of proceedings

Date

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 (2023), from 10:00 to 12:00

Location

National Town and Village Hall 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
Mitsuhiro Tsubota (Information Policy Manager, Hino City Planning Department)
Nobuaki Hayashi (Senior Manager, Usuki City Health Health Division)
Satoshi Harada (Kyoto Sangyo 21 Promotion of DX Supervisor and CISO)

Associate member

Hiroaki Aoki (Hitachi Systems, Ltd.)
Yuki Hayase (Ryobi Systems Co., Ltd.)
Makoto Kawaguchi (FUJIFILM System Service Co., Ltd.)
Shukyu Omura (Fujitsu Japan Limited)
Masakazu Yoshida (RYOMO SYSTEMS CO.,LTD.)
Masanori FUJINO (NEC Corporation)
Masahiro Kamanaka (INES Corporation)

Observer

Kenzaburo Tamaru, Digital Agency Principal Solutions Architect
Yohei Suzuki (Deputy Director of the Digitization and Promotion Office, Planning Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Tax Bureau)
Nobuaki Sakuma (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)
Masakazu TERADA (Director of the Resident Systems Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Takanori OKUDA (Director of Local Digital Platform Planning Office Office, Population Systems Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Sho Haida (Local Digital Platform Planning Office Investigator, Resident System Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Kuniaki Tanahashi (Assistant Director of the Management Division, Electoral Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Local Government Bureau)
Dan UCHIYAMA (Section Chief of the Management Division, Election Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Autonomous Administrative Bureau)
Takuya Hazama (Section Chief of the First Civil Affairs Division, Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of
Yuya Tsutsumi (Administrative Official of the First Civil Affairs Division, Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of
Miyuki Shirai (Assistant to the Director of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Institutional Reform Office, Elementary and Secondary education Planning Division, education Elementary and Secondary education Bureau)
WATANABE Yasutaka (Specialist, education Institutional Reform Office, Elementary and Secondary education Planning Division, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Elementary and Secondary education Bureau)
Satoyuki Shimazoe (Assistant to the Director of the Information Systems Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning and Evaluation of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)
Hiroomi Sunose (Assistant to the Director of the Information Systems Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning and Evaluation of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)
Mizuki Natori (Senior Specialist, Educational Support and Teaching Materials Division, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Elementary and Secondary education Bureau)

Agenda

Opinions from the first Review Meeting and the results of the national opinion inquiry on the "Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0] Proposal"
Draft "Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0]"
Draft "Overview of MJ +"
Issue Reorganization for Fiscal 2023 Initiatives

Proceedings

At the second meeting, in response to the opinions from the members and the results of the national opinion inquiry obtained based on the results of the first meeting, the Secretariat summarized the results and arranged the Issue, and explained the "Draft Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0]," the "Overall Picture of MJ +," and the Issue Arrangement for Efforts in Fiscal 2023.
Mr. Kobayashi explained the "MJ + Internationalization process" based on Material 2.

Question and

Member: and others expressed their opinion that the addition of characters to MJ + should be avoided as much as possible, and the Secretariat explained that it would like to present the whole picture. Since we are also involved in the Working Group on family registry Unified Characters, we would like to supplement the current situation.

The addition of characters related to the family registry Unified Character is ongoing in the working group. I and other members have experience in engaging in the development of JIS X 0213, and we performed the identification work based on the character information.

As a result, it has been operated as such even now, and the identification work is aimed at the same level as that.

In the next fiscal year and beyond, the number of characters is expected to decrease, but I have heard that it will continue. In recent cases, there have been cases in which the number of strokes of the Chinese characters in one's name is smaller than that of the family registry Unified Characters, but their use has been approved by family courts and they have been added to the family registry Unified Characters.

The use of Chinese characters in the names of individuals is a sensitive issue related to identity, and similar cases are expected to occur in the future.

I understand that you want to decide the total number as soon as possible, but the problem is that there are still characters in reality, and based on the policies such as' A human-friendly digitalization that leaves no one behind,' it is considered that the identification work of the family registry Unified Character and the addition of characters will continue in the future.

Secretariat: We are fully aware of that. We think that it is necessary to arrange the management and operation flow in the case of addition in the first half of fiscal 2023.

Member: , the 9,433 characters are not included in the existing MJ. Has identification work been done for the integrated Chinese characters of UCS?

In the future, I would like to encourage you to clarify the 9,433 characters that are not included in MJ but are included in the Unified Kanji of UCS.

Digital Agency and MOJ also think that the goal to be aimed at is not MJ but UCS.
It is necessary to aim to create a system in which no one is left behind in a form that conforms to international standards. It is important to determine how many of the 9,433 characters can be identified by international standards, how many can be integrated with international standards, and which new ones must be proposed.

Member: There are some uncertain points, but I will confirm them.

Member: font system vendors about PUP (Private Use Plane), but from the perspective of international standardization, I thought that the use of PUP would be good for this project.

I revised the project proposal, but if there is an agreement between the parties concerned, there is no regulation on how to use it.

However, the biggest objection from the vendors is the response to the database system, which is also described in Attachment 1, and the vendors feel that it is difficult to respond practically.

In the International Components for Unicode (ICU), there is a component called a sorting order that shows the order of codes and sequences of codes, and each company is made and managed by open source.

In MJ, since a mechanism called IVS, which represents multiple character code areas, is included in the component, the sorting and order in the form including this are currently being determined by the council members.

I feel that it is questionable to add more PUP at the stage of work in MJ.

In the future, it is thought that the use of PUP will be stopped and transition will be made to the international standard, but the cost in that case is unimaginable. In addition, complete transition itself is impossible, and characters that are not specified will always remain, and non-consistency with the international standard will occur in the remaining places. Many vendors have expressed their opinions that PUP should not be used.

Therefore, we think that what is important in MJ + is not the font, but to give a unique name to each character shape of 9,433 characters and to specify the name and shape.

If there is a unique name, information can be exchanged between local government, so there is no need for font implementation. In each local government, it is no longer necessary to implementation all MJ +. Why don't Digital Agency and the Ministry of Justice decide on a unique name, prepare PUP data, and provide information on outline data such as SVG?

As a result, each local government can create fonts freely at a low cost. When exchanging character information between local government, it is sufficient to use the names of unique characters published by Digital Agency as a means. I think that dividing the system into layers, such as a system for exchanging characters between local government and a system for operation, including printing, will lead to the solution of the problem.

Member: , we would like to confirm the content of the main review based on the opinion inquiry of the character requirement.

In addition, I feel that the overall picture of MJ +, including your current opinions, may need to be revised.

For No. 1 and 2, I think the current description is fine, but for No. 3, I think it is necessary to consider changing the description.

There is a word "charset" in the material, but the story of how to make "charset" is different from the story of how to make implementation. If you don't mistake that point, I think it will be fine. What do you think?

Secretariat: , would like to set specifications for cooperation without specifying implementation as much as possible.

However, there was a part about fonts in the text, and it was described in detail in implementation. This time, it was revised so that implementation would not be specified as much as possible. Would it be better to change the description further?

Member: I think it is heading in a good direction with the revision from the previous time. I would like to ask that implementation not be specified as much as possible.

It is scary not to define implementation, but if you don't do it well, you may be dragged down by implementation and become a design that is not beautiful as a whole.

Member: characters, I would like to confirm what the institutional positioning of family registry will be. Are you going to make it clear that family registry characters will be reduced to characters in a certain standard? That is related to the explanation to the people.

We would like to carefully ask for feedback on the opinions collected from local government. I think all the opinions from local government have been confirmed in Digital Agency, but I would like the answers to be made public. It would be more desirable if the draft answers to local government could be discussed at the Review Meeting.

It is about the schedule issue. At the same time, it was said that the standardization of local government 20 services would be done at the end of fiscal 2025. I would like you to describe the schedule on how the character requirements will be run in parallel. You explained that you would not go into implementation, such as identifying characters and organizing fonts, but local government cannot switch systems unless these are cleared, so it should be clear where and what to do. It is not desirable because the more complex the schedule, the more difficult it will be to execute.

This is the relationship between the Juki Net and the unified characters. It is not specifically stated in the materials. Institutionally, I think the unified characters of the Juki Net will remain at the end of fiscal 2025, but it is necessary to state how to arrange the relationship.

Secretariat: Regarding the first point, this is the most difficult thing in a sense, and we have established a form of transitional measure. There are opinions that we want to eliminate transitional measure, and we are promoting standardization while we want to eliminate it.

We would like to respond to the second opinion in the FAQ. We would like to respond as soon as possible.

Regarding the third schedule, it seems that system transition is concentrated at the end of fiscal 2025. Therefore, we would like to consider the schedule after April in order to advance and decentralize the work on characters as much as possible. In addition, we would like to present the identification map, which was initially presented one year later, as early as possible in the summer, although it is a beta version, so that the identification of characters, etc. can be performed as early as possible.

The fourth point, Juki Net and unified characters, is also a very important issue, but since it is not a matter for us to consider alone, we would like to show a direction in the first half of fiscal 2023 after discussing it with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

In addition, regarding the full text of "MJ +" to be presented at the end of March, we would like to present it to all local government through the simultaneous inquiry system at the end of March.

Member: Regarding the first point, I am afraid that I will not be able to obtain the understanding of local government.
I understand that you are making efforts, but what is realistically difficult is difficult, so I would like you to consider it.

Member: and family registry is very difficult, but Digital Agency is a organization that was created as a control tower directly under the Prime Minister and is responsible for creating and presenting major policies. I would like him to demonstrate his control tower function.

In addition, only Digital Agency can move the entire schedule, so I would like you to look at it from the standpoint of whether Digital Agency can achieve the purpose as a whole.

Secretariat: As you pointed out, Digital Agency has to proceed with the project waving its flag, so we would like to proceed firmly in cooperation with the relevant ministries and agencies.

Member: expects the MJ + initiative to put an end to the discussion of character codes by integrating them with family registry characters, and to be free from the management of external characters. Nevertheless, I would like to ask for forgiveness if there are two font files or if they are separate for each individual business.

In addition, I understand that international standards are necessary, but as I heard from the members that they will be divided into layers, I would appreciate if you could proceed with the discussion of international standards and the practice of local government by dividing the layers.

In addition, it is understood that the discussion at this Review Meeting is about the encoding of characters because it is important to link data. At present, when the spread of My Number is becoming more widespread, it is assumed that the majority of cooperation between local government operations and local government operations will be based on My Number. As the situation in which cooperation is based on character codes instead of My Number, operations such as police, trial, registration, and decoration are assumed, so it may be better to discuss cooperation with these external systems.

Secretariat: We have received opinions on cooperation with external systems, and we also believe that standardization has its meaning there. Therefore, we would like to investigate and examine in as much detail as possible which organizations and how to cooperate.

Associate Member: In the Consideration should also be given to cases in which printing is requested by a printer in relation to outsourcing.

It is common for large-scale local government to outsource large-scale printing, but we assume that they will often ask printing companies in area, not limited to major companies, to do so. We believe that validation, including printing companies in area, is important in terms of whether they can respond technologically and cost-wise, and whether they will not be a barrier to entry. We hope that they will be included in validation in the future.

I think that it will be possible to decide when the MJ + can be operated only after confirming the various Issue that are up now, so I think that the schedule should be considered again after confirming it.
The MJ + was said to be about 70000 characters, but it was explained that the number of characters may be expanded in the future. The Issue of whether it can be stored in one font file is a very heavy Issue for operators.

You mentioned that you would like to have an opportunity to hear the opinions of vendors, but I would like to have a forum for discussion after you show the evidence of how one font file can be technically realized.

In the Character Requirements, there is a statement that "Fonts shall be at the discretion of the vendor." I think this is true in the world of fonts, but when considering administrative proceduer or from the viewpoint of local government employees, there is a matter of how much fluctuation in the appearance of characters by each vendor can be tolerated. local government recognizes that the biggest concern is inquiries from citizens about whether these are my correct characters. Therefore, in order to make it easier for the window to explain this, one way of thinking is to prepare fonts made by Digital Agency as options. This does not mean that it is necessary to unify them.

Secretariat: , I think that making a schedule after validation has a common point in that the fiscal year of interim measures is considered based on the situation at the end of fiscal 2025. I would like to work on this demonstration projects with the courage to change the schedule from time to time.

With regard to the second point, I agree with you. I would like to present several proposals and then decide on the subject.

Regarding the third point, which is the same as the previous question, based on the results of the discussion with the vendor, if it is made in Digital Agency, I would like to do my best.

Member: wants is to be freed from the operation of Gaiji without creating any more Gaiji. It can't be helped in the transitional period, but I would like the knowledge of how to eliminate Gaiji and identify it as a standard character to be included in the operation.

At the same time, although family registry is certainly under the jurisdiction of the MOJ, it is necessary to obtain the understanding of local government. Therefore, we would like to see a vision for Digital Agency after setting a deadline.

On the other hand, I am concerned that family registry has its own characters that have been around for 30 years. It is not that Digital Agency does not make codes and fonts, but that it should show the base of how to represent the characters. I think it is possible to think that it is up to you how to use them. I think this idea itself will lead to how Japan will fight the world in international data distribution.

In addition, as mentioned in the opinion of the associate member, it is about small and medium-sized enterprise printing companies that entrust various benefit systems. It is said that demonstration projects will be developed after the summer of fiscal 2023, but I would like you to show that you can step in this area after showing the specifications and written procedures.

Secretariat: The concept of the map that is being created this time, there are parts that were shown to the members, so I would like to advance it so that it can be utilized for operation.
As for how to proceed with the family registry, we would like to reorganize it while listening to opinions.
Printing companies are also vendors that support our standardization, and we would like to make a demonstration projects.

Associate Member: In the Character Requirements, there is a description that "the character font is optional for each vendor." However, Issue is a local government where a multi-vendor system is built. If the resident record system is this font and the tax system is this font, there is a possibility that it will not work well in terms of operation and technology. We would like to ask you to add Issue.

Secretariat: Based on the opinions received, we would like to consider it in the future.

Member: Based on the opinions received, I would like to make a decision on Agenda 2. "Proposal for' Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Cooperation Requirements (Character Requirements) [Version 2.0]'" and Agenda 3. "Proposal for' The Whole Picture of MJ +'" after coordination between myself and the Secretariat. What do you think?

(No objection from the members)

End