Kirk with some news about “my number cards” (maina cards). Kumamoto City has achieved the highest adoption rate (78%) of 20 ordinance-designated (seirei shitei; 政令指定) cities. Moreover, “maina cards” have made it possible to get certain documents (residence registries [juumin-hyou], etc.) for only 10 yen each a local convenience stores. This has led to over half of all such documents in Kumamoto being procured at convenience stores rather than at ward offices. Personally, I’ve found this to be very convenient and you can’t beat that 10 yen price! :)
But, because the national government failed to adequately protect private information (see English article below) the mayor has decide the put the convenience store service on hold (Japanese article). In our family, we just received word that we need to submit a juumin-hyou to register a new vehicle so this means we’ll have to make a special trip to a ward office and pay a good deal more. :(
Sources: About Kumamoto (in Japanese): https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3354a0ace75e0ff348342f6d625ca1cd6520d075
About the problems with the cards (in English): https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/07/07/national/my-number-card-investigation/