The long convoluted My Number ID for iPhone Apple Wallet saga is finally over with the Digital Agency June 24 service launch. The cat was already out of the bag before the official launch announcement when a My Number iPhone option appeared on multi-function copy machine government service menu screens at major convenience stores (7 Eleven, LAWSON, FamilyMart, etc.) in early June. The Apple backend had been ready since iOS 18.5, all we needed was the updated Digital Agency Mynaportal app for iOS on the App Store.
But another journey is just beginning, another chapter if you will, because there isn’t much My Number ID in Apple Wallet can actually do out of the box on launch day outside of the government services menu on those convenience store multi-function copiers (that are cash only BTW). Nevertheless the Japanese Digital Agency has big plans, but as we’ve seen in the case of digital drivers licenses on Apple Wallet in the US, achieving widespread adoption and real world use is not an easy task even for tech giants and government agencies.
Preparation and basic steps
Digital My Number ID has been available since 2023 on Android Osaifu Keitai, not a very fun setup by the looks of it. Fortunately Apple and the Digital Agency have worked hard to make adding My Number to iPhone Apple Wallet a much simpler provisioning process that incorporates Face ID setup in Mynaportal app. The Digital Agency iPhone installation video explains the setup.
Before starting you must have the required items ready: your plastic My Number ID card, the 4 digit PIN, the 6~16 character string password, an Phone XS or later model (2nd gen power reserve secure element iPhones) with iOS 18.5 or later, and the latest version of Mynaportal app (v71.0.0 or later). Setup during the My Number system operation hours 7:30~19:30 to finish setup the same day.
Launch Mynnportal app, tap iPhone setup, enter your plastic My Number PIN and password, do a Face ID setup, read the physical card, set a new PIN and password for iPhone My Number (can be different or same as the plastic card PIN and password), tap add to Wallet and you’re done. The Apple Support doc Use your My Number Card in Apple Wallet also covers the setup.
Easy, right? Not difficult by any means but it’s clearly designed by a government agency on top of the already bureaucratic process of getting a plastic My Number card at the local city office.
And don’t hold your breath for easy, widespread use. At least not yet. Just look how long it has taken to get a few US drivers licenses in Apple Wallet. Despite all that effort, the state of using those digital DLs is still not great. Visual inspection dies hard. The Japanese government wants to change that but there are many challenges.
Missing ID Verification Infrastructure
The first big issue facing wider My Number ID use is the classic chicken and egg problem. The use case for My Number ID isn’t there yet because: there aren’t many places to use it…because nobody has readers…because nobody’s using My Number Card. You get the picture. As of September 30, 2024, approximately 103.4 million My Number Cards have been issued, covering about 82.4% of Japan’s population. The Android smartphone install base is a tiny subset of that figure (3 million, at best?) but there’s a problem with the mobile side because until recently the Digital Agency was exclusively focused on plastic card readers.
I’ve have a card for years and only used it for the very first time visiting the dentist this spring using a newly installed NFC reader to present my national health insurance card details. It’s the only practical use I can think of. But there are problems because the Digital Agency was pushing readers exclusively designed for plastic cards and mandatory manual PIN entry verification, not digital ID verification on mobile devices:
The idea behind upright plastic cards readers is easy touchscreen PIN number entry and visual feedback. But now that the Digital Agency wants to promote digital ID, the card reader infrastructure plan has been updated: medical institutions need to install 2 readers, one for plastic, one for mobile. The Digital Agency says smartphones with My Number cards can be used starting from September 2025. The mobile setup is shown in the national medical insurance diagram (shown below). Smartphone My Number users will still need to use the plastic card reader touchscreen for choosing menu options.
This one step forward, one step sideways approach has been the story of My Number since its inception. Lots of ‘let’s do this, let’s do that’ bureaucratic missteps instead of a larger cohesive vision. Smartphone My Number ends up looking like an ad hoc afterthought even though it’s been in the works for over a decade. I was planning to attach my drivers license to My Number, but the smartphone digital My Number card is not accepted by the police, the plastic card is the only official version because…the Japanese police don’t have NFC reading devices and verification apps in place yet. Verification app are in the works too, the Digital Agency iPhone page says:
My Number Card In-Person Verification App
The Digital Agency provides the “My Number Card In-Person Verification App” (iOS/Android) to enable businesses and local government staff to reliably verify the personal information of customers or residents using physical My Number Cards.
For the iOS version, a feature for in-person identity verification using the My Number Card on iPhones is scheduled to be provided by mid-July.
It sounds like a perfect job for Apple’s Tap to Present ID on iPhone API that’s been around since iOS 17, if the Digital Agency bureaucracy ever gets their act together enough to use it. We’ll see. After all, it’s a government managed program. Japanese politicians like to portray themselves as pushing the digital ID frontier forward, but the reality of where things are is all you need to know about that.
The real question is how much will My Number for Apple Wallet move the use case needle. The Japanese media is saying yes it will because when iPhone gets a new feature, lots of people want to use it. But it will take time, lots of time for the reader and app verification infrastructure to come together. My Number for iPhone Apple Wallet launch is a start line. The wait is over but the use case reality is very limited for the immediate future, the momentum will slowly build from here.
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