Standardization of Characters in Local Government Information Systems

As part of efforts to unify and standardize the core business systems of local governments, we are promoting the standardization of characters. In this process, we aim to improve the efficiency and improved services for residents of administrative work by standardizing the Gaiji and facilitating data management and information coordination between systems.

Contents

• Administrative work introduction of standard characters
• Background to the need for character standardization
• Establishment of administrative standard characters
• Effects of character standardization
• References
• Frequently Asked Questions
• such as the
• Related Information

Administrative work introduction of standard characters

Based on the Act on Standardization of Information Systems of Local Public Entities (Act No. 40 of 2021), local public entities across the country are working on the " standardization, for family registers and Supplementary Family Register (family register information systems and Supplementary Family Register systems), there is a transitional measure that enables the use of traditional character sets, character codes, and character fonts by maintaining traditional character sets in correspondence with administrative standard characters. " to standardize the specifications (functional requirements, data requirements, etc.) of information systems used in business operations subject to standardization (20 business operations subject to standardization in Unification and standardization of core business systems of local governments

As part of this effort, we are working with local governments and system vendors to prepare for the standardization of characters used in systems (standard compliance system) that conform to the standard specifications. We aim to improve the efficiency and improved services for residents of administrative work by formulating and introducing administrative work standard characters to facilitate data management and information coordination between systems.

In addition, the "Study Group on the Operation of Character Requirements in Local Public Entity Information Systems" was established in fiscal 2023 (fiscal 2023), and the "Expert Council on the Standardization of Characters in Local Public Entity Information Systems" has been established since fiscal 2024 (fiscal 2024) to discuss issues related to the operation of character requirements with experts. For details, please refer to the such as the Council.

Background to the need for character standardization

What is a private character?

One of the reasons for the need to standardize characters is the existence of "gaiji." Gaiji refers to characters that have been created individually for reasons such as differences in whether the lines that form the characters are connected or separated, differences in line length and line orientation, and so on. The characteristic of many gaiji is that they are characters used for personal names.

This is a symbol of the richness and depth of the Japanese writing culture. At the same time, it has become a major burden for public organizations, as they cannot tolerate input errors or confirmation errors in the handling of names. In addition, there have been cases where it has been abused for fraud aimed at people who do not notice small differences in letters.

Solving various problems with external characters

The following are some of the main issues associated with using private characters.

• Cost of private character creation
  • Character data is created and maintained for each local government and for each department within a local government that carries out procedures.
• Heavy burden on local government employees and residents
  • You can't issuing on the same day a Copy of Resident Record when you move in. After an official of a local public entity makes a Gaiji, a resident will receive a Copy of Resident Record later.
  • At public institutions such as local public entities, there is a large burden of confirmation work, etc., to prevent input errors from occurring during procedures.
  • Differences in computer-managed characters among local governments hinder the implementation of efficient administrative services and prompt responses in the event of a large-scale disaster.
• Restrictions on system selection (vendor lock-in * 1)
  • When the system is updated, it is easy to become a vendor lock-in situation in which you continue to depend on the same vendor, and it is also a factor that costs a lot to create, maintain and manage characters.
• Inhibits information coordination between systems
  • Since the data of the computers used for resident services are managed by different systems, if external characters are used, not only data linkage between different local governments but also data linkage between systems of different departments within the same local government may cause garbled characters, etc., which is a factor that hinders information linkage.

* 1 Vendor lock-in: A phenomenon that makes it difficult to switch to another vendor when adopting a product, service, system, etc. that greatly depends on the proprietary technology of a specific vendor.

Example of data linkage in resident services

At present, the computers used for resident services are managed in separate systems. These separate systems are linked together to issue postal items, certificates, etc. to the public. For example, the Various Certificates issued by linking these separate systems are as follows.

Establishment of administrative standard characters

Administrative work From the Origin of Standard Characters

According to a survey conducted by Ministry of Justice, the number of characters managed by municipal family register information systems is about 1.63 million, or about 700,000 characters when duplicates are excluded. Of these, about 550,000 characters can be classified as the same characters as those in the Character Information Platform (MJ) * 2, which covers about 60000 characters from the character sets of the family register information coordination system in Ministry of Justice. Therefore, we decided to use the Character Information Platform (MJ) as the base for studying characters used in standard compliance system.

The remaining approximately 150,000 characters could not be sorted out as the same characters as those in the Character Information Base (MJ). However, when we narrowed down the characters actually used in the family register, we were able to identify approximately 10,000 characters. These characters, combined with the existing Character Information Base (MJ), were designated by Digital Agency as the "Standard Characters for Administrative Work" of approximately 70000 characters.

In order to ensure that characters do not interfere with information sharing and that they are compatible and widely used, Digital Agency is studying the international standardization of administrative standard characters.

"* 2" "Character Information Platform (MJ)" ": Established in 2011 to cover the standardized characters in family registers and the standardized characters in the Basic Residential Registers Network System so that all names of citizens can be handled by computers. In June 2013, the" "Proclamation to Create the World's Most Advanced IT Nation" "was approved by the Cabinet and its utilization policies were standardized." "Character Information Platform" "refers to a project to prepare approximately 60000 Chinese characters used in administrative work that require accurate representation of personal names, etc., and to implement international standardization. The character information platform development project is an initiative to" "reduce unusable characters." "The characters prepared in this project are called" "MJ characters." "International standardization is also being implemented using fonts of the character information platform. The Character Information Technology Promotion Council provides character fonts and character information lists free of charge. The total number of characters is 58862."

Effects of character standardization

The appearance of characters used by local governments in mailing addresses, etc. may change

As a result of the unification and standardization of characters used in standard compliance system, from FY 2025 (FY 2025), characters used in Various Certificates and postal items will be gradually standardized. For those who use their own external characters (characters that cannot be expressed on a standard personal computer) for their names, etc., characters used in Various Certificates issued by local governments and addresses of postal items mailed by local governments will be output in "Standard Administrative Characters," which may result in a different design from the past. The framework of Chinese characters (called "Jitai") will not change, but may change within the range of differences in design (differences in "Jitai"), such as differences in the size of radicals, differences in bending springs, differences in some lengths, etc. The timing of the introduction and the types of certificates and postal items subject to the introduction will vary depending on the situation of each local government.

In the family register, we keep the old letters.

At the time of standardization, the existing characters will continue to be used in family registers * 3. Administrative standard characters are used in certificates issued by local governments, printed materials, computer processing, etc., and names that you write by hand in documents, etc. can still be used as before.

* 3 Among the 20 administrative services subject to standardization, for family registers and Supplementary Family Register (family register information systems and Supplementary Family Register systems), there is a transitional measure that enables the use of traditional character sets, character codes, and character fonts by maintaining traditional character sets in correspondence with administrative standard characters.

References

• Character inclusion guidelines
  With the aim of standardizing core business systems, we have established guidelines for determining whether administrative office standard characters can be included in administrative office standard characters, as a reference for local governments when they identify administrative office standard characters.
  • Text Inclusion Guidelines (PDF / 2,804 kb) (updated July 18, 2025)
• Administrative work List of standard text entities
  Administrative work A list of entity names and entities in standard text. For definitions of "entity name" and "entity", see the Text Inclusion Guidelines.
  • Administrative work List of standard text entities (PDF / 62,477 kb)
    *The MJ character figure names and basic character information with titles in the list are based on the MJ character information list Ver. 006.02. The MJ character information list is a work of the International Paper Association and is provided by Commons Certificate attribution - Share Alike 2.1 (Attribution - Same Conditions License) (Creative Commons) .
• Administrative work Information materials for the introduction of standard characters
  This leaflet was created following discussions at the Advisory Council on the Standardization of Characters in Local Government Information Systems.
  • Leaflet "Introduction of Standard Characters for Administrative Work (Characters used by local governments in Various Certificates and mailings will be standardized)" (PDF / 1,629 kb)

Frequently Asked Questions

• Frequently Asked Questions: Character Standardization in Local Government Information Systems (PDF / 381 kb)

such as the

• Study Group on Operation of Character Requirements for Local Government Information Systems
• Council of Experts on Character Standardization in Local Government Information Systems

Related Information

• Unification and standardization of core business systems of local governments
• MJ Character Information List (Character Information Technology Promotion Council)
• "Concept of' Font, Typeface, Shape,' etc. in list of Kanji for common use" (Cultural Affairs Agency)
• Character Improvement Project (Ministry of Justice)