Anti National ID Japan

Jukinet in the News: Nagano Prefcture vs. the Ministry

Battle over Jukinet security -- Nagano Prefcture vs. the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Postal and Telecoms

From Mainichi Daily News:

Nagano gov't hackers easily infiltrate 'Big Brother' network

Tests show hackers could access resident registry network

Nagano gov't tries hacking into resident registry network

Controversial resident registry network starts full operations

Nagano Pref. Press Conference on Dec 16, 2003 Resources:

Texts and PDFs (in Japanese)

RealVideo of the Press Conference (in Japanese)

International Privacy Report

I and groups of people worked on eight month or so to compile international privacy issues and privacy enhancing technologies (PETs for short). We delivered this report to Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Postal and Telecoms in May 2003 to make them under stand what is going on about privacy in the international arena, i.e. Canada, USA, and European countries. For Japanese government the report would illustrate what has been missing in Japan's policy on privacy, and for international audience this could be an interesting reference to compare differences.

The published report was 400 pages, 150 pages in English and 250 pages in Japanese translation of original report and additional materials in Japanese.

PDF version of the report is downloadable from below.
http://joi.ito.com/joiwiki/PrivacyReport

The Days After the Official Launch

Lies and Secrets, part 2

The days after the official launch of Japan's national ID network

by Gohsuke Takama
Tokyo, Aug 13, 2002

The Day of Official Launch

On Aug 5, Japan's government officially forced to activate the controversial Basic Resident Registers Network, or so called Jukinet among Japanese, without having privacy protection laws enacted, although the network has been up technically since Jul 22.

On the day of launch, 6 municipal governments disconnected. Suginami-ward of Tokyo (510,000 population), city of Kokubunji (110,000), and town of Yamatsuri in Fukushima prefecture (7,300), city of Yokohama (3,450,000) took disobedience. Towns of Futami (5,800) and Obata (18,300) in Mie pref. waited for several days to participate. That day, the computers for the Basic Resident Registers Network at Suginami-ward were kept off. City of Kokubunji had a ceremony of shutting down machines at 9:00 am. Yamatsuri-cho even turned off the system before on the day of testing started Jul 22.

In the news: Japan's national ID network

Here are links to the news coverage on Japan's national ID network in English.

Newsday, AP report:
Japanese Drop Out of New ID System

BBC:
Japan launches ID scheme

Reuters:
Japan Launches ID Network Amid 'Big Brother' Angst

CNN, AP report:
Japanese ID system reports data leak

Slashdot:
Governmental ID System in Japan

IDG, ITWorld:
Japan national ID system raises privacy concerns

Mainichi Daily News:
Residents reject 'unlucky' registry network numbers

Local gov'ts found connected to vulnerable LAN

Launch of resident registry network marred by problems

'Big Brother' network launches Monday amid fierce protests

Location of 'Big Brother' computer shrouded in mystery

Japan's biggest city rebels against nationwide network

Kokubunji rejects, Yokohama accepts resident registry network

Tokyo ward rejects 'Big Brother' registration system

Yokkaichi city workers abuse 'Big Brother' database

'Big Brother' resident registry network begins trial runs

Residents fear Big Brother watching over registration law

Listen to Yomiuri News as practice of Japanese

Lies and Secrets - Japan's National ID Network

Lies and Secrets

Japan's national ID network has gone live already

by Gohsuke Takama
Tokyo, Jul 31, 2002

It's Up and Running Already

Rhetorics and politics are good friends. Almost everyone in Japan including politician has been believing that Japan's national ID network system, the Basic Residents Registers Network, would go live on Aug 5 of this year. Opponents of national ID have been thinking there is some chance to stop launching. But the truth is that it is already live since more than a week ago, technically. And it has gone without privacy protection laws which left behind in Japan's diet for more discussions after summer.