"My Number Card Can't Be Used" — Generational Data on the Digital Divide

My Number Card ownership has reached 84.0%[1]. 104,184,326 cards are actually held[1], and the numbers alone suggest Japan's digital divide is closing.

But between "owning" and "being able to use" lies a deep chasm.

Card ownership rate

79.6%

Used a card-based service(Among owners)

86.6%

Aware of online gov services(All card owners)

50.3%

Ages 70+ aware of online procedures(e.g. moving, etc.)

19.1%

!

Card ownership stands at 79.6%, yet awareness of online government services is only 50.3%. For those aged 70+, awareness of procedures like moving notifications drops to 19.1% — the gap between "having" and "using" deepens with each generation.

According to the Digital Agency's FY2024 survey, 86.6%[2] of card holders have used at least one card-based service. At first glance, this appears high. But examining the breakdown changes the picture: awareness of online government services (via MynaPortal, etc.) stands at just 50.3%[2]. Nearly half of card holders do not even know that online government services exist.

Awareness splits by generation

The generational divide is even starker. While awareness of online procedures like moving notifications reaches 49.7%[2] among those in their teens and 20s, it drops to just 19.1%[2] among those aged 70 and above — a gap of over 30 points. For the one-stop furusato nozei (hometown tax) exception application, awareness among those 70+ is a mere 12.3%[2].

Internet use above age 80

When overlaid with the reality that internet usage among those aged 80+ is just 33.1%, down from 36.4% the year before[3], the contours of who My Number Card's online services cannot reach become clear. The same survey puts overall internet use at 85.6%[4] — meaning one person in seven does not use the internet at all, and most of them are older.

The Shock of the My Number Card "2025 Problem"

The My Number Card itself has a 10-year validity period, but the digital certificate required for health insurance card functionality expires after just 5 years. This mismatch in expiration timelines is causing large-scale disruption in FY2025.

27.8MCards needing renewal (FY2025)Card body + digital certificates combined

87.5%Medical facilities experiencing issuesSince Dec 2024 (Hodanren survey)

31%Expired certificate-related issuesDoubled from 14.1% in prior survey

Chain reaction of expiration

1Renewal notices only on MynaPortal (digital)

2Elderly users miss digital notifications

3Digital certificate expires unnoticed

4My Number health insurance card fails at clinics

5Must visit municipal office in person (mobility barrier)

In FY2025, 27.68 million[5] cards and digital certificates reach their expiration dates. According to the Japan Federation of Insurance Medical Associations (Hodanren), ran its first national survey after paper insurance cards stopped being issued, covering 9,741 facilities. Only 10.6% (1,029 facilities) reported no trouble at all[6]. Put the other way round, about nine in ten hit a problem.

Trouble caused by expired digital certificates in particular doubled from 14.1% (1,799 facilities) in the previous survey to 31% (3,023 facilities)[5].

The core issue lies in the notification system. Renewal notices are primarily delivered digitally through MynaPortal, meaning elderly users who do not regularly check MynaPortal cannot notice their expiration. As a result, many discover their card "doesn't work" only at the medical facility counter. Roughly 80% of facilities resort to verifying insurance status through traditional health insurance cards, while the Ministry of Health's recommended "qualification information notice" has not gained sufficient traction.

The Exclusion Built into Digitally-Premised Design

Renewal procedures require the card holder or a representative to physically visit a municipal office. For elderly individuals or those with disabilities who face mobility challenges, this "physical renewal" constitutes a significant barrier. The contradiction is embedded in the system's foundations: to enjoy the convenience of digitalization, non-digital action (visiting a municipal office) is required.

Support frameworks such as the Digital Utilization Support Program do exist. However, while awareness of health insurance card functionality among those 70+ is relatively high at 87.0%[2], awareness of online administrative procedures remains at just 19.1%. The barrier between "known functions" and "usable functions" runs deeper than awareness numbers suggest.

Younger generations face different challenges. The proportion responding "I don't intend to renew" reaches 20.5%[7] among those in their 20s and 12.5% among those in their 30s, with resistance to facial recognition card readers also reported. The structural reality that digital native generations do not perceive the card as necessary cannot be overlooked.

The Three Layers of Inequality Hidden by "Ownership Rate"

The digital divide surrounding the My Number Card follows the same pattern as the existing three-layer structure of the digital divide（このサイトの記事）.

The first layer — the "access divide" — manifests in generational differences in internet usage rates. The 33.1% usage rate among those 80+ represents a gap of over 60 points compared to the 97%. The gap is not closing either: the 80+ group is the one that fell from last year among those aged 13–59. For people who cannot use the internet, even communicating the existence of online services is inherently difficult.

The second layer — the "skills divide" — appears among those who own the card but cannot navigate online procedures. PIN management, MynaPortal navigation, certificate renewal — this series of operations presupposes digital literacy.

The third layer — the "outcome divide" — is where the quality of access to government services diverges between those who can and cannot leverage digital tools. Those who can obtain certificates at convenience stores (satisfaction rate of 84.2%[2]) versus those who must queue at municipal offices. Those who can complete tax returns via e-Tax versus those who must visit the tax office with paper documents. Even with the same card, the benefits derived differ dramatically by generation.

From Quantity to Quality — What an Indicator Shift Demands

When the metric "80% ownership" is used to narrate policy success, it simultaneously renders invisible who is being left behind. By 2040, one in three Japanese will be elderly. The population that "cannot use" digital tools will not shrink — it will be structurally reproduced as aging progresses.

How many actually completed a procedure

What is needed is a shift from quantitative indicators like ownership rates and issuance numbers to outcome indicators: "How many people completed an online procedure?" "How many recognized their renewal notification?" "How many received medical care without incident?" Quantitative metrics measure "what was distributed" but not "who can actually use it."

The plan for the next-generation card

A next-generation My Number Card is planned for 2028. Card functionality on Android (from 2026), tax returns completable entirely by smartphone — convenience improvements are indeed advancing. But as long as these functional expansions presuppose smartphone ownership, unless support for those who do not own or cannot operate smartphones is designed simultaneously, the divide will only widen.

As 『デジタルファシズム — 日本の資産と主権が消える』 (Digital Fascism: Japan's Assets and Sovereignty Disappearing)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） (Mika Tsutsumi, 2021) warned, digitalization is fundamentally a means to enhance citizens' convenience, not an end in itself. Between the ideal of "a digital society that leaves no one behind" and the current policy design that chases ownership rates lies a structural contradiction. Confronting that contradiction and shifting to institutional design centered on "ability to use" — that is the condition for the My Number Card to truly become social infrastructure.

For the broader structure of the digital divide, see Digital Divide 2026 — The Paradox of DX Leaving Behind Those It Should Serve（このサイトの記事）. For the structure of populations that policy cannot reach, see Common Structures of Populations Policy Cannot Reach（このサイトの記事）.

Related Guides

• Introduction to Systems Thinking — Understanding Complex Social Issues Through Structure（このサイトの記事）
• NPO Data Utilization Guide — Supporting Organizational Decision-Making with Data（このサイトの記事）

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References

My Number Card Issuance Status — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. MIC

Survey on My Number Card Penetration and Utilization (FY2024) — Digital Agency. Digital Agency

Results of the FY2024 Communications Usage Trend Survey — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. MIC Information and Communications Statistics Database

My Number Health Insurance Card Expiration Troubles at 31% — 3,023 Medical Facilities — Japan Federation of Insurance Medical Associations. Hodanren News

The 2025 Problem of Health Insurance Cards and My Number Health Insurance Card Challenges — Tomoaki Taniguchi. Dai-ichi Life Research Institute

Digital 2026: Japan — DataReportal. DataReportal

Reference Books