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Standardization of Characters in Local Government Information Systems

As part of efforts to unify and standardize the core business systems of local governments, the standardization of characters is being promoted. Among them, the Gaiji will be standardized to facilitate data management and information linkage between systems, with the aim of improving the efficiency and improved services for residents of administrative work.

Contents

Introduction of Standard Characters for Administrative Work

Based on the Act on Standardization of Local Public Entity Information Systems (Act No. 40 of 2021), we are working on the "Unification and Standardization of Core Business Systems for standardization, the Family Register and Supplementary Family Register (Family Register Information System and Supplementary Family Register System) have a transitional measure that enables the use of the conventional character sets, character codes, and character fonts by maintaining the conventional character sets in correspondence with the administrative business standard characters in the " to standardize the specifications (functional requirements, data requirements, etc.) of information systems used by local public entities across the country in the 20 Unification and standardization of key operation systems of local governments that are subject to standardization from the viewpoint of commonality in the content of administrative processing, improvement of convenience for residents, and efficiency of local administrative management.

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

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

Background of the demand for standardization of characters

What is Gaiji?

One of the reasons why standardization of characters is required is the existence of "gaiji" (private characters). Gaiji refers to characters for which character data is individually created due to the difference in whether the lines forming the characters are connected or separated, the difference in the length of the lines, the difference in the direction of the lines, etc. The characteristics of gaiji are that most of them are characters used for personal names.

This is a symbol of the richness and depth of Japan's character culture. At the same time, it has been a major burden for public institutions, which cannot tolerate mistyping or mischecking of names. It has also been abused for fraud and other purposes, targeting people who are unaware of small differences in characters.

Solving various problems caused by private characters

The main issues related to private characters are as follows.

  • External character creation cost
    • Character data is created and maintained by each local public entity and by each section within a local public entity that performs procedures.
  • Large 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 employee of the local public entity creates Gaiji, the resident will receive a Copy of Resident Record later.
    • At public institutions such as local governments, there is a great burden in checking procedures to prevent name input errors.
    • Differences in the characters managed by computers among local governments hinder the efficient implementation of administrative services and prompt response to large-scale disasters.
  • System selection constraints (vendor lock-in * 1)
    • When a system is updated, external characters become a hindrance, and it is easy to be in a state of vendor lock-in that continues to depend on the same vendor, and it is also a factor that costs to create, maintain and manage characters.
  • Disruption of information coordination between systems
    • Since the data of the computers used for resident services are managed in separate systems, when using external characters, not only data linkage between different local governments, but also data linkage between systems in different departments within the same local government can cause garbled characters, etc., which is a factor that hinders information linkage.

* 1 Vendor lock-in: A phenomenon in which it becomes difficult to switch to another vendor when a product, service, system, etc. that is highly dependent on a specific vendor's proprietary technology is adopted.

This figure shows the four main problems with gaiji: the cost of creating gaiji, the heavy load on staff and residents (not being able to issue gaiji immediately upon moving in), the constraints on system selection (vendor lock-in), and the impediments to information coordination between systems (garbled characters).

Examples of Data Linkage in Resident Services

Currently, the computers used to provide services to local residents are managed by separate systems. These systems are linked to each other to issue postal items and certificates. For example, the following types of Various Certificates are issued by linking these systems.

Certificate NameLinking systemSystem that outputs the certificate
Attachment copies of the family registerResident record systemSupplementary Family Register system
Medical Consultation Forms for Medical Examinations and Cancer Examinations, Vaccination Pre-Examination Forms, etc.Resident record systemHealth care system
Confirmation of qualificationResident record systemNational health insurance system

Establishment of Standard Characters for Administrative Work

Administrative affairs From the formation of standard characters

According to a survey conducted by Ministry of Justice, there are approximately 1.63 million characters managed by the Family Register Information Systems of municipalities, and approximately 700,000 characters excluding duplicates. Of these, approximately 550,000 characters were able to be organized as the same characters as those in the "Character Information Base (MJ) * 2," which covers approximately 60000 characters out of the character sets of the Family Register Information Linkage System in Ministry of Justice. Therefore, we decided to use the "Character Information Base (MJ)" as a base when considering characters to be 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, after narrowing down the characters actually used in family registers, we were able to identify approximately 10,000 characters. These characters, together with the existing "Character Information Base (MJ)," were defined by Digital Agency as approximately 70000 "Standard Characters for Administrative Work."

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

* 2 "Character Information Platform (MJ)": Established in 2011 to cover the uniform family register characters and the uniform Basic Residential Registers Network System characters and to enable computers to handle the names of all citizens. The project to develop and internationally standardize approximately 60000 Chinese characters used in administrative work that requires accurate writing of names, etc. is called the "Character Information Platform." The Character Information Platform Development Project is an initiative to "reduce the number of characters that cannot be used." The characters developed through this project are called "MJ characters." International standardization is also carried out using fonts in the Character Information Platform. The Character Information Technology Promotion Council creates character fonts and a list of character information and provides them free of charge. The total number of characters is 58862.

The left-hand side of the figure shows the 1.63 million characters managed by the Family Register Information System. This figure, excluding duplicates, is about 700,000 characters. This figure consists of about 550,000 characters that were identified in the character information base by the Ministry of Justice's character information maintenance work and about 150,000 characters that were not identified in the character information base. The middle of the figure shows 110,000 characters in the character set of the Family Register Information Linkage System. Of these, about 60000 characters are in the character information base (MJ). The right-hand side of the figure shows the standard characters for administrative work. This figure consists of the character information base (MJ) and about 10,000 characters in the character set of the Family Register Information Linkage System, which are narrowed down to the characters actually used in family registers.

Influence of character standardization

The appearance of characters used by local governments for mailing addresses may change.

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

In the family register, we keep the old characters.

At the time of standardization, the conventional characters will be maintained in family registers * 3. The standard characters for administrative work are used in certificates issued by local governments, printed materials, computer processing, etc., and the names that people write by hand on documents, etc. can be used as before.

* 3 Among the 20 business systems subject to standardization, the Family Register and Supplementary Family Register (Family Register Information System and Supplementary Family Register System) have a transitional measure that enables the use of the conventional character sets, character codes, and character fonts by maintaining the conventional character sets in correspondence with the administrative business standard characters in the .

It describes four patterns: differences in the size of character components, differences in the length of strokes within character components, differences in bend stops and bend jumps within character components, and differences in contact and non-contact between strokes within character components.

References

Frequently Asked Questions

Council and other