(Update) Japan Government Stops Issuing New Health Insurance Cards as of Monday 2nd December 2024

By Barrier Free Japan

December 2 2024

TOKYO – The Japanese government will stop issuing new health insurance cards on Dec. 2 as planned in a move to integrate them into “My Number” electronic personal identification cards.

The government hopes to replace conventional paper or plastic health insurance cards with the chip-embedded My Number card for social security and taxation, to which health insurance card functions can be added.

The shift is aimed at advancing the digitalization of medical information. But the benefits have not been communicated sufficiently to patients.

In addition, the public is concerned after a series of problems over the integration of health insurance card functions into the My Number card, such as one in which information of card holders was wrongly linked with that of other holders in related procedures.

In October, only 15.67 pct of patients used their My Number cards as health insurance cards at hospitals.

The digital minister Masaaki Taira reminded the public in an interview on November 13th that:

“There is no change in our policy to proceed as scheduled,” despite opposition to the abolition by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan which had introduced a bill to the House of Representatives, the lower parliamentary chamber, to delay the abolition.

“There are many things that can’t be done without an IC chip,” Taira said. “A loophole should be closed as it is easy to cheat (with current health insurance cards).”

At the same time, Taira underscored the importance of the government making efforts to eliminate public distrust in problem-prone My Number cards.

While the government will stop issuing new health insurance cards on Monday, most people will remain unaffected by the move in the short term as existing health insurance cards can still be used for another year.

People without My Number cards can still use their existing health insurance cards for their visits to hospitals, dental clinics and pharmacies during the grace period — which ends on Dec. 1, 2025 — as long as they remain valid.

Information about the My Number card and how you can get one is available in English at https://www.kojinbango-card.go.jp/en/ .