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The 3rd Study Meeting on the Operation of Character Requirements in local governments Information Systems

Overview

  • Date and Time: Friday, July 14, 2023 (2023) from 10:00 to 12:00
  • Location: Erosion Control Center and online conference
  • Agenda:
    1. Opening
    2. Agenda
      1. Matters to be reported
      2. Positioning of administrative operation Standard Characters
      3. Examination of Character Management Operation Method
      4. About Reviewing Font Files
      5. Overview of Identification Map
    3. Other
    4. Adjournment

Materials

Relevant policies

Summary of proceedings

Date

  • Friday, July 14, 2023 (2023), from 10:00 to 12:00

Location

  • Erosion Control Center 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 (Chief Manager of education Guidance Division, education Department, Hino City)
  • Nobuaki Hayashi (Senior Manager, Usuki City Health Health Division)
  • Satoshi Harada (Kyoto Sangyo 21 Promotion of DX Supervisor and CISO)

Associate member

  • Masahiro Kamanaka (INES Corporation)
  • Masanori FUJINO (NEC Corporation)
  • Hiroaki Aoki (Hitachi Systems, Ltd.)
  • Shukyu Omura (Fujitsu Japan Limited)
  • 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 (Attendance by proxy))
  • Kyohei Oyama ANDO (Section Head of family registry Planning Section, First Civil Affairs Division, Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Justice (attendance by proxy))
  • Shiki FURUKAWA (Administrative Officer of family registry Guidance Section, First Civil Affairs Division, Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Justice (Attendance by proxy))
  • Mizuki Natori (Assistant Director of the Study Support and Teaching Materials Division, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Elementary and Secondary education Bureau)
  • Tomohiro Ohtani (Section Head of Study 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

  1. Matters to be reported
  2. Positioning of administrative operation Standard Characters
  3. Examination of Character Management Operation Method
  4. About Reviewing Font Files
  5. Overview of Identification Map

Proceedings

  • At the third meeting, the Secretariat reported on the review of the Second Review Meeting and the future review schedule, reported on the change in the outline of the Review Meeting, shared the opinions received from the members and the materials issued by Digital Agency after the Second Review Meeting, and reported that the official name of MJ + was decided to be "administrative operation Standard Characters".
  • The Secretariat provided explanations on "Positioning of administrative operation Standard Characters," "Examination of Character Management Operation Method," "Examination of Font File," and "Outline of Identification Map" based on Material 1.

Question and

Member: MJ + has become "administrative operation Standard Characters," I understand the content of the explanation, but in "administrative operation," I can feel the characters and viewpoints of the administrative side. From the viewpoint of the people, "administrative proceduer" is easier to understand. I thought that it would be better to be careful when explaining administrative operation Standard Characters in the future.

Regarding the period of interim measures for systems other than the Ticket for family registry and family registry, you explained that it is about 3 to 5 years, but I would like you to describe this in the relevant part of the other pages of the document. Regarding the period of interim measures for the Ticket for family registry and family registry, it only says, "It is possible as an interim measure," and the period is not written. In the explanation, I think there was an explanation with the nuance of a considerable period of time. I understood that there are two stages of interim measures, "the Ticket system for family registry and family registry" and other systems, but I doubt that everyone who has read this document can understand that it is two stages. I would like you to describe it in an easy-to-understand manner.

Is the treatment of characters in family registry still not converging with administrative operation standard characters? If there is a misunderstanding, I would like to ask you to point out. family registry currently has various external characters, but I think there is a very big Issue about how to handle them in the future. I believe that digitalization processing cannot be performed unless the characters in family registry are converged into standard character sets.

In the case of the Resident Record System and the Nursing Care System, after the first transitional measure period expires, it is indicated that certificates will be issued without external characters, but in family registry, certificates with external characters will always be issued. Is there any problem with this recognition?

Secretariat: MJ + I understand the matter of the official name. As for the transitional measure, I would like to show how many years it will be in a way that is as clear as possible. The main intention shown here is that the transitional measure will be in two stages, "the Ticket system of family registry and family registry" and other systems. We will consider the method of description in the future.

In standard compliance system, we have received opinions that it is a burden for vendors and local government to make a transition to standard compliance system and reflect the character requirements in the database at the same time, so we have established an interim measure. In addition to that, in family registry, there is a feeling that the character shape of the name is an identity. Regarding this Issue, I do not know whether the interim measure is 10 years or 20 years, but I believe that a different flow and period from the flow of time that the system responds to is necessary.

Regarding the transitional period for the Ticket for family registry and family registry, we believe that it would be better to set a separate deadline based on the awareness of the people of Japan. At this point, we have not set a clear deadline of a considerable period.

Member: system. However, family registry itself has been a Issue for many years. Moreover, if things continue as they are, only family registry will not conform to the sentence in Article 8 of the Act on Standardization of local governments Information Systems, "local governments Information Systems must conform to standardization standards."

I would like the Justice Ministry, Digital Agency, and other relevant ministries and agencies to discuss this point and thoroughly discuss what to do with family registry characters as a national policy. I understand that family registry characters are deeply rooted in personal identity. However, in digitalization, which the national government is promoting, I would like you to discuss again whether it is really the right thing to leave personal feelings behind when advancing various affairs and procedures on a digital basis.

Member: . Does "possible as an interim measure" mean that certificates may be issued in family registry standard characters in the administrative operation system even during the interim measure period?

Secretariat: Transitional Measure Period, if it is determined that the transitional measure will not be applied, certificates will be issued in administrative operation Standard Characters.

Member: Standard Characters" was presented as the official name of administrative operation MJ +, but there is a character string called "Standard Characters." In this regard, there is a nuance of being correct and adding restrictions, so for example, in the Japanese language policy and Chinese character policy of the Council of Culture, etc., we have been very careful about using the word "standard" in combination with words and characters, and in some cases, we have avoided it. It is said that this name has already been announced, but in the future, when we widely spread the name, we would like to see thorough public relations so that there will be no misunderstanding about the meaning and intention of the term.

There was also an explanation of the future schedule. In addition to the Gaiji of family registry, there are, for example, registered unified characters, and even there, many Gaiji are used in place names and company names, and it is considered that there are Issue that cannot be ignored in terms of society and culture. Please tell us how you are thinking about the positioning of Gaiji such as registered unified characters.

Secretariat: is limited to the word "standard." We do not have such an idea at all, and we have thought of the name from the idea that "it is a character and character set used in common." We would like to make this name known while explaining such an explanation.

This time, we have been considering mainly the name, etc. of standard compliance system. We would like to consider again the unified registration characters, etc. after the correspondence of the character requirements this time advances.

Member: .

One is the feelings of individuals. The other is that letters are a public asset and a common property of the world. There is a rift in letters as a means of personal feelings and communication, and that is the debate.

As a result of the discussion, I do not know whether it will lean toward personal feelings or public assets, but I would like to see the administrative operation standard characters themselves sorted out in the two axes.

If you could proceed from such a perspective, it would be easier to proceed when making the administrative operation Standard Script an international standard.

Observer: The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Agency for Cultural Affairs have jurisdiction over list of Kanji for common use. They are set forth in the Cabinet Notice after receiving a report from the Council for Cultural Affairs. In addition, the idea of creating official documents using these Joyo Kanji is also a proposal of the Council, and this was made known by the Chief Cabinet Secretary to the Ministers of State of each ministry and agency in 2022.

In cases other than the name, the list of Kanji for common use is the range of Chinese characters to be used in ordinary sentences for creating official documents. It is assumed that it is well known in local government and is often used.

Of course, there are many Chinese characters in the administrative operation standard characters, but I am concerned that there may be a misunderstanding that these are Chinese characters that can be used in the creation of official texts or that they are alternatives to character sets. In addition, when I saw the notification text, I felt that the administrative operation standard characters are specified as the name of the list of Kanji for common use, but the word "character" is not very abstract, and I felt that the character sets and character fonts are also included.

I think that the administrative operation standard characters have large elements to express a name with a unique identity in the area of name and registration.

Secretariat: Notice, we would like to make it known that it is a standard use of the administrative operation system.

Member: is meaningful, but is it clearly stated in the notice of the list of Kanji for common use that the identity part is excluded?

Member: list of Kanji for common use states that proper nouns are excluded, with the nuance that they are the usual main characters in general society.

Observer: The notice basically shows the concept when creating an official text. The notice says, "For proper nouns (place names and personal names), Chinese characters that are not in the list of Kanji for common use may be used. Proper nouns are not subject to the application of the list of Kanji for common use. Therefore, place names shall be written in a common way. In addition, personal names shall be written based on the will of the person, as a general rule. However, furigana shall be used as necessary. If there is no particular problem, it is desirable to use the common font of the list of Kanji for common use for proper nouns, and to use the printed standard font of the outer Chinese character font for Chinese characters that are not in the list of Kanji for common use."

Member: , no matter what the name is, it is not complete by itself, and I think it is necessary to add an explanation. I would like Digital Agency to steadily advance the necessary explanation.

In addition, I would like to confirm whether the discussion of transitional measures, etc. is premised on the fact that the population decline and the halving of the working-age population are almost certain. The number of staff in local government has to be reduced in proportion to the working-age population, and the direct service department in local government is difficult to reduce, so the indirect department has to be reduced by more than half. If the same operation as the present one is continued, the family registry site of the indirect department may not be able to respond.

It is not necessarily a good story for family registry to separate only family registry, and family registry must change in accordance with the flow of digitalization in the world. I do not go so far as to say that transitional measures should be stopped, but I think that it is necessary to proceed on a limited basis.

Secretariat: :

Member: Notice, it is written as double-byte and single-byte in the remarks, but is it necessary to continue this notation? I thought why the union of JIS X 0213, MJ, and MJ + is not good, but in fact, JIS X 0213 includes many symbols and characters other than alphabets that are not used in daily life in Japan. I thought that I limited hiragana and katakana because I did not like the non-kanji of JIS X 0213, but if so, I think it is desirable to write them in a form corresponding to the code area of the international standard instead of using the expression of double-byte and single-byte.

Secretariat: Since the materials this time serve as an image, we would like to consider them again in the future.

Member: font file has an upper limit due to the circumstances of glyphs. It can only store up to about 65,000 characters, excluding about 60,000 MJ characters, and there are about 10,000 characters to be added, so in a situation where about 5,000 characters are overflowing, is the local government of A 65,000 characters and the local government of B 65,000 characters?

Secretariat: Although it is a difficult issue, we have heard an opinion from local government that "it is difficult for a situation to occur in which the characters recorded in each local government are different." We have an idea to create a similar one if possible, but we would like to proceed with consideration in the future, such as whether it is technically possible.

Member: Among ISO standards, there is a standard called Open Type Format that specifies font formats, and discussions have begun to expand the format from 16 bits to 32 bits.

Japanese members are also in favor of this extension, and they think that the reason is that "If MJ + is included, there are not enough letters, so I want to use it."

The other is that the family registry Unified Character is originally a character that can be used in family registry, and all the characters listed in commercially available dictionaries are included. However, some of them are used only in some parts of China.

There is talk of expanding the standard itself, but it is not clear when this will be realized. On the other hand, there may be a direction to issue MJ + after excluding those that will probably not be used for Japanese names in the future even in the current character information infrastructure.

Secretariat: Council and experts.

Member: family registry Unification Moji Co., Ltd. collected Chinese characters using a Chinese-Japanese dictionary as a central source. The Ministry of Justice took statistics while comparing and arranging family registry Unification Moji and the characters actually used in family registry, and about half of the characters listed in family registry Unification Moji Co., Ltd. were actually used. We believe that it is necessary to take this fact into account in future discussions.

Another point is that Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) explained the basic stance on Chinese characters in official texts. There is also a description on Chinese characters as proper nouns, and I think that a hint can be obtained to aim for a solution to the current discussion from the part where it can be seen that the stance and difficulty were made when creating official texts.

Member: font, even if I ask local government, it is really expected. If you do not know when the 32-bit version will be available, tens of thousands of characters will be organized, and the workload will be significantly reduced if it becomes a single file. If it is organized including the definition area, it will be appreciated by local government, so please provide it at an early date and take measures so that it does not become a drag on the standardization transition, which is supposed to be up to the twenty twenty-five level.

In addition, it is not premised on a large-scale local government that can afford to respond, but a small-scale local government with no money or people is in a difficult situation, so I would like to ask for a discussion that takes into consideration the situation.

Member: Identification Map, this is a very good idea and will be a boon for each local government contact, but I also think it has stepped into a very difficult area.

On that premise, I think that it is better to be more detailed about "what identification means".

There are levels of being the same or different.

Such a division method can be done in the character information base, but in the IVD (Ideographic Variation Database), it is integrated in the UCS, so how to handle the Chinese characters to be divided is a matter of Issue.

One suggestion is to drop it into Joyo Kanji if possible, JIS X 0213 if it is impossible, UCS if it still does not work, and IVD if it does not work. Since IVD can be added relatively easily, it may be better to incorporate the level classification of the object to be identified into the identification map.

When the person himself goes to the counter for family registry procedures, he says, "This is the correct Chinese character for your name," and there are fine distinctions made that the person himself does not even realize. I do not remember exactly, but when family registry was computerized, I tried to put it in JIS X 0213, but at that time, I think he divided it into fine parts regardless of his intention.

It is not known whether it is feasible, but it is desirable that a path that reflects the thoughts of the person or the bereaved family in some form can be created in the identification process.

Secretariat: To talk about the current direction, we shared the "Image of the Range of MJ + and Characters Necessary for Operation" in the materials of the previous Study Group. According to the Ministry of Justice, among the approximately 1,630,000 characters managed by the family registry vendor, the number is approximately 700,000 characters after removing the overlapping portion. The approximately 700,000 characters were finally identified as approximately 70,000 characters as MJ + by the Expert Council of the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the inclusion criteria.

With that, I would like to think about how far we can realize it. As you pointed out, there is an idea to confirm the intention of individuals, but I think it is difficult to establish such a thing within the period, including the burden on the site.

Member: Gaiji. Even if you are not in charge of the Basic Resident Register or family registry, it is a hard work to identify different character codes in each system.

You can register it once, but once you register it, it keeps piling up and you have to keep it as a history, so it is a pressure. This time, it is very helpful for the field to be able to gather the private character files of each municipality to MJ + using the identification map.

However, since it is said that this will be adjusted to the actual system, it seems that it will be necessary to bring the systems of family registry and Juki to MJ + first, but if we have to check the database for this, the amount of confirmation work on the site seems to be very large, so I would like you to release the schedule for the second half as soon as possible.

Secretariat: I believe that it is related to interim measures. It is possible to maintain the database in Gaiji during interim measures. However, when cooperating with other systems, it is possible to create a cooperation file via a conversion table of Gaiji extracted from the identification map and MJ +, and then cooperate with other systems in MJ +. Conversion is necessary, but we believe that the burden on the site can be reduced, so we would like to create an identification map in such a form this time.

Member: and other experts worked to organize the text from about 700,000 characters to about 70,000 characters. I expect that the evidence that summarizes these processes will be used as an explanatory material at the transition counter when local government is made to standardization. Is it a material that can actually be used?

In addition, assuming that it will be used several years later, in the part of searching for characters, a single kanji search will appear in local government, but if there is a prospect of where such a function will be equipped, please share it.

Secretariat: We recognize that there is such a need. At present, we have not been able to consider what kind of form it is desirable to prepare as an explanatory material, but it is desirable to be able to explain that "your character has been converted into this" when residents come to the counter.

We feel that a search function is also necessary, but we have not yet fully considered what kind of function is necessary, but we would like to consider it in the future.

Member: identification map. Until now, we have been consulting with vendors for each local government, but we would like you to proceed firmly with the standardization of the map nationwide.

There are about two points confirmed throughout the whole. Since the MJ characters are not enough, we have discussed about the expansion and extension of the range. As a result, we have been able to organize a certain number of characters. However, unfortunately, one font file contains only about 65,000 characters. Therefore, it is not technically impossible to use two or more font files, but I understand that it is almost impossible. In that case, it is also possible to think about what we have done so far. On the other hand, I also think that it is a realistic solution to proceed with the organization including subtraction in order to fit into one font file. However, I am wondering how to think about MJ + for MJ and subtract from it to make MJ + negative.

In addition, I don't think it will be a case where each local government separately performs the work of storing them in one font file. Is that correct?

I believe that the system referred to here, such as resident records and nursing care, will be processed in a systematic manner within the scope of MJ +. I think that it is important to make it a law in a way that is easy for the people to understand that it is okay to do so and that these are firmly regulated. Without such a system, I think that the staff at the local government counter may not be able to explain it. Even if I show and explain the materials used in this meeting, the residents will not be convinced, and I feel that the current standardization law cannot explain it.

Member: However, as you said just now, "In order to prevent the occurrence of creating separate font files in each local government," it is not desirable to create a single unified font for the Digital Agency standard characters in administrative operation. It is important to create an international standard not only in terms of character codes but also in terms of international rules as one of the important aspects of creating and operating it.

I understand your desire for a unified font, but I think what Digital Agency can do is to support each local government to create a dedicated font that contains only the administrative operation standard characters that are necessary.

We would like the discussion to be based on the fact that international standards are important viewpoints.

Member: For example, is there no problem with all local government working together to come up with a font and use it?

Member: As a result, we think it is difficult because it will become public.

Member: Is there a potential conflict with the "administrative operation Standard Character Set" that we are discussing?

Member: Rather than using the exact same character font, it is desirable to use the font required by each local government.

Member: subset?

Member: subset is probably OK, but a subset is preferable.

For private use, we would like you to bring only what you need and use it to exchange information with other local government as much as possible.

Member: . However, based on what I have just said, I feel that it is desirable to take a direction in which the whole does not fall apart.

Member: to show that Digital Agency should be unified.

Secretariat: Regarding that, we would like to consult with vendors, experts, industry groups, etc. in the future.

Member: I would like to proceed with each item to be considered and the work procedure so that there will be no errors. If there are no other opinions, I would like to end the proceedings here.

End