Quarterly Activity Report by Vice-Minister for Digital Transformation, Chief Officer of Digital Agency

This report describes our quarterly activities in Vice-Minister for Digital Transformation, Chief Officer of Digital Agency.

Quarterly Activity Report for January to March 2023
Quarterly activity report for September to December 2022

2023 works

January to March

Activities were reported on "Toward International Data Distribution and Utilization - Efforts to Materialize' DFFT'", "Public Service Mesh, a New Information Coordination System to Support Administrative Online Services", "Expansion of My Number Card Usage Scenes", "Creation of Administrative Services from the Perspective of Users", and "Strengthening of Development Systems". For details, please refer to the following materials.

Quarterly Activity Report for January - March 2023 (PDF / 5,379 kb) (updated April 5, 2023)

On March 30, 2023, Digital Agency held a briefing session on its quarterly activities (January to March 2023) and future priority measures, and announced that it would strengthen cooperation with startups and small and medium-sized enterprises and expand the scope of "internal development" from fiscal 2023, with the aim of strengthening its development system. By the end of fiscal 2023, we aim to hire more than 200 new personnel with expertise from the private sector. This will bring the total number of personnel from the private sector to 500, including 300 who have already joined the agency.

In addition, we reported on our efforts to promote "Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT)," which will be discussed in G7 Digital and Technology Ministers' Meeting in Takasaki, Gunma on April 29 and 30, 2023, the new information coordination system "Public Service Mesh" to support online administrative services, the expansion of My Number Card usage, and additional functions of "Mynaportal beta version," which is being developed from the user's perspective.

Digital Agency was established in September 2021 as a control tower for the realization of the Japanese digital society. Since then, it has promoted a "people-friendly My Number Card where no one is left behind" through various initiatives such as the popularization of digitalisation, the provision of vaccine COVID-19 vaccine certificate app, cashless Government administrative costs, the development of the Government Cloud, and the promotion of local business standardization.

In addition, the Group promoted the realization of "user-friendly services" for citizens, businesses, and employees by building an information coordination system that supports international data distribution and utilization, administrative online services, further expanding the use of My Number Card, developing services from the user's perspective, and strengthening the development system.

Report Summary

Toward International Data Distribution and Utilization - Efforts to Realize DFFT -

In order to materialize the concept of DFFT, which enables the free flow and use of information across national borders while ensuring trust in security, we are working in cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and other regions. Currently, we are working with G7 countries and relevant international organizations to promote DFFT based on the three pillars of formulating trade rules, regulatory cooperation, and responding with technology.
In G7 Digital and Technology Ministers' Meeting in Takasaki, Gunma, which will be held in April, we aim to reach an agreement on a ministerial declaration that includes the creation of an "international framework."
Within the "International Framework," it is envisioned that the government and private sector stakeholders will work together to advance various projects. Japan will take the lead in establishing a permanent secretariat to enable the public and private sectors to work together to resolve business and other issues arising from restrictions on cross-border transfer of data.
Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) (Data Free Flow with Trust)

"Public Service Mesh," a new information coordination system that supports online administrative services

Both users and providers of current administrative online services face challenges, including the realization of a better experience, the introduction of new services, and the realization of efficient system development.
Based on these challenges, we will create a new framework targeting twenty twenty-five under the slogan of "completing procedures in 60 seconds with a smartphone," "launching a new service in seven days," and "achieving the optimal cost," toward our goal of "a service that is friendly to users, businesses, and employees."
As a review of the system toward the realization, we are proceeding with a design study of a public service mesh as a new system for information coordination held by administrative agencies.
The public service mesh will make it possible to link various users and front services with administrative systems and data more smoothly and safely. It will realize a high processing capacity that can handle administrative online services for all citizens, and will enable employees to quickly utilize data with a minimum of system support by designing based on the specifications of local government system standardization.
In addition, the cost will be optimized by providing the functions necessary for information coordination on the government cloud as common functions that can be used by administrative agencies.
We will continue to design and develop the system for operation during twenty twenty-five.

Expansion of My Number Card usage

The number of applications in My Number Card is currently about 95 million, more than three quarters of the people, and it has become widely recognized as the most convenient and safe identity verification tool in the digital society.
The use of My Number Card is expanding, including the issue of certificates of residence at convenience stores, use as a health insurance card, and online moving procedures, and further expansion is expected in daily life.
The most important thing in expanding convenient services centered on My Number Card is to provide services that are "user-friendly." In addition to "increasing the number of people who can use the service" and "increasing the number of situations in which the service can be used," we are pursuing "ease of use of the service." By thoroughly implementing "user-centered services," we believe that the number of My Number Card users will increase as a result.
To expand usage scenarios Under the Digital Garden City initiative, local governments and private companies are working together to promote more than 500 usage scenarios. In addition, we have launched a development plan for a new Authentication App that will allow identity verification procedures and login authentication using My Number Card, and are considering expanding collaboration with private services using new services.
In the future, we will promote the visualization and disclosure of data on the use of various services using My Number Card.
My Number (individual number) system, My Number Card

Creating administrative services from the user's perspective

In the development of digital services in public administration, there was a problem that the user perspective was not sufficient compared to foreign governments.
In the development of the new Mynaportal, we introduced a new user-centered development process. We also implement approaches that capture user needs such as user test and interviews, and processes that repeat the development and verification of services in a short period of time. At the end of 2022, we released the first test version of a large-scale administrative digital service.
Various opinions are collected and analyzed in real time through a system in which opinions are directly received from users and through user interviews, and are used to improve services.
On March 23, 2023, we took advantage of user feedback to add features to Mynaportal beta version.
1. Don't forget what to do (certificate information) service
  You can check the progress of the application process.
  - My Number Card Certification Expiration Date
  - Registration for use of health insurance card
  - Registration of public fund accounts
    Etc.
2. Keep track of your parenting
  - Medical checkup information for mother and child
  - Immunization information
  - Health insurance card information
    Etc.
A beta version will be released in the summer of 2023 and a full version will be released during fiscal 2023.
Mynaportal Verification Alpha

Strengthening the development system

It has become clear once again that the current approach to development has problems in that flexible development is difficult and knowledge and know-how cannot be accumulated.
The first policy is to strengthen cooperation with startups and small and medium-sized enterprises. This will enable business operators to conduct new transactions with administrative agencies and increase their credibility as companies. Administrative agencies can cooperate with a variety of business operators, which may lead to flexible and quick development and improvement of service quality. Ultimately, we aim to increase the number of companies participating in government system development, shorten the development period, and improve service quality.
Our second policy is to expand the scope of internal development.
We will start with five projects that can be segmented into new services and relatively small-scale systems.
1. "New identity verification", an application that allows the national government, local governments, and the private sector to use Authentication App procedures and personal identification cross-sectionally
2. Front UI of "New My Number Card", which explains Mynaportal in an easy-to-understand way and provides the latest information
3. "jGrants," an easy way to apply for subsidies on the Internet
4. "Public API gateway" that enables collaboration between public and private APIs
5. Unification of the design systems of ministries and agencies, which is being promoted in order to improve the procedures of local governments and improve the convenience of citizens
In the medium - to long-term, we will expand the scope of internal development, focusing on systems that will become the core in the future and systems that require flexible development, based on the knowledge gained through the challenges of the five projects.
Our roadmap for the future is to expand the scope of internal development from fiscal 2023, secure tools and development environments from April 2023, and ensure that the internal development of the above five projects is progressing steadily by the end of March 2024.
In order to achieve these goals, the Government aims to hire at least 200 new personnel with expertise from the private sector by the end of FY 2023, bringing the total number of personnel from the private sector to 500, including the 300 who have already joined the Agency.

2022 works

September to December

We reported on our activities in "Providing service development guides and opening information", "Promoting cooperation with private sector", and "Expanding services for consumers". For details, please refer to the following materials.

Report Summary

Provision and publication of information: Provision of service development guide and opening of information

We created a design system that enables the provision of websites and applications with a consistent design and operability. In November, we published design data on our web page and on the Figma Community. More than 53,300 pages were viewed (from November 11 to December 11, 2022), and more than 3,900 were downloaded (as of December 2022).
Design system
In December, we released the Web Accessibility Guide, which takes into account the needs of people with disabilities, so that all people, including those with disabilities and the elderly, can use information and services provided on the Web smoothly.
Web Accessibility Implementation Guidebook
My Number Card is increasingly available for use as a identity verification document, online application for administrative procedures related to child care and nursing care, and Vaccination Certificate of COVID-19 acquisition.
You can get certificates such as certificate of residence and certificate of seal impression at a convenience store near your home, and you can also use it at the hospital or pharmacy you always go to. Also, in some municipalities, you can use it at the local services where you live, such as using the library or subsidizing taxi fares.
On the other hand, many people have voiced concerns about the privacy and security of My Number Card. In order for the people of Japan to use My Number Card with peace of mind, we are taking measures to prevent the loss of My Number Card, prevent the forgery of personal information, and take security measures for IC chips.
With the aim of "widely sharing information on policies and administrative services," the Policy Data Dashboard (beta version), which provides information such as the number of issue in My Number Card, was made available to the public today.
Policy Data Dashboard (Beta)

Public-Private Partnership: Promoting cooperation with private sector

At the Digital Extraordinary administrative investigation Meeting * 1, the revision policies for approximately 99% of the approximately 9,000 provisions of laws and ordinances were finalized (as of October 2022). Regulations that fall under these items will be inspected and revised by June 2024.
* 1 Activities to eliminate analog regulations such as face-to-face and visual observation and reduce human work by utilizing digital technology
As a first step, we promoted the development of a "Technology Map" to identify the technologies necessary for digitalisation and to match them with private companies that possess the necessary technologies. On the Digital Agency website, we conducted a public offering to realize a digitalisation for face-to-face courses and exams, and published information on 23 products and services.
Results of Public Offering for Products that Realize digitalisation for Training and Testing
We have started considering the introduction of a Japanese version of the Digital Marketplace (DMP) with the aim of transparent and prompt IT public procurement. We will create opportunities for collaboration, including procurement, with powerful SMEs and startups as "partner companies" for the provision of public services.
In order to promote the utilization of private-sector services in the disaster prevention field, we conducted a public application for the Public-Private Partnership Type Disaster Prevention DX Promotion Council. We received about 200 applications, and about 70 applications were registered for the public application of applications and technologies that are practical and can be used at disaster prevention sites.
By designing a disaster-prevention Architecture and promoting the construction of a data-linkage infrastructure, we will work to realize a mechanism that does not require individual data input in separate applications, etc., so that individual residents can receive accurate support in the event of disasters.

Toward easy-to-use services: Expanding services for consumers

The number of accounts created on Visit Japan Web has exceeded 2.04 million, and more than 50000 accounts are created every day. In order to further improve convenience, we plan to gradually expand four functions from April 2023: "identity verification for duty-free goods," "proxy entry," "passport information scanning," and "visa-linked functions."
The "Mynaportal Demonstration Alpha" will be available from today. We have improved the service to be "easy to understand and use at a glance" based on the feedback from users that "it is difficult to find functions" and "it is difficult to operate".
As the main services of the "Mynaportal Demonstration Alpha Version," we have launched three services that allow users to search for procedures from life events, easily check their own records and information, and complete things by noticing what needs to be done. We will collect opinions and requests from users. In the future, we will improve the service and add functions based on the opinions and requests from users, aiming for a "service created together with users."
Mynaportal Verification Alpha