New pension booklets to be sent to 1.25 mil people

The Japan Pension Service has started sending new pension booklets to about 1.25 million people whose information was leaked in a big data hack in May.

The welfare ministry said affected individuals will be receiving new pension numbers and new pension booklets, Fuji TV reported. Of the individuals whose pension numbers were leaked, the addresses and identifications of only 960,000 of them have been confirmed.

In May, Japan Pension Service staff computers were improperly accessed by an external email virus, allowing the leak of some 1.25 million cases of personal data. The leaks involved names, identification numbers, birth dates and addresses.

The leaks have given rise to security concerns over the My Number system, which is to be used for for medical and financial information as well as for social security and tax administration.

All Japanese citizens will be issued a 12-digit identification number starting in January 2016. Each citizen will be notified of their number in October and the system will go into effect on Jan 1, 2016.

ID numbers will be assigned to children at birth and non-Japanese with resident registries will also be given numbers.

Opponents of the new system have expressed concern about privacy issues. There are also worries that criminals may steal other people's ID numbers. The system will be managed by the more than 1,700 local governments across Japan.

Economy Minister Akira Amari said the My Number system will be implemented as scheduled but he said the government will conduct a thorough investigation of the Japan Pension Service data leak before deciding on when to include pension information in the My Number system.

© Japan Today