Previous Politech message: "Japan's national ID network -- already live, a week early" http://www.politechbot.com/p-03829.html --- From: Anonymous User <anonymousat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: Japanese Drop Out of New ID System >From The Associated Press, available online at: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-defiance-in-japan0811aug10.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines Japanese Drop Out of New ID System By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer August 10, 2002, 10:28 PM EDT TOKYO -- Ever since their computerized ID system switched on a few days ago, Japanese citizens have dropped out in droves from what many resent as a "big brother" monitoring of the people. The dozens of protest groups that have popped up are planning a rally Monday at which demonstrators will show their outrage by ripping up the papers being sent out by the government to assign every citizen an 11-digit number. "To start with, giving a number to people is a violation of our individual human rights," said Eiji Yoshimura, one of the protesters. "We have absolutely nothing to gain from this system." Several local governments have refused to participate in the system, which began last Monday. Yokohama, a Tokyo suburb of 3.4 million people, is giving its residents a choice of hooking up or not. The government is assigning each of Japan's 126 million citizens an ID number that will link into a nationwide computer system. The idea is to streamline Japan's cumbersome bureaucracy by making it easy to obtain basic personal information during administrative procedures. Critics worry about loss of privacy, and some fear government officials will misuse the information. The disenchantment some Japanese express toward the registry underlines a deep, although often hidden, distrust of government that is surprisingly common in a nation known for orderly, conformist behavior. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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