Japan’s Digital Agency has authorized the first private-sector use of free space on the My Number Card’s IC chip, designating Toshiba Digital Engineering Corporation as the initial implementer under the country’s Number Act enforcement rules. The formal notice was published on February 27, 2026.
The authorization was issued pursuant to Article 18, Paragraph 2, Item 4 of the Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures Enforcement Order. Under this provision, any regulated company seeking to install a custom application in the unused space on the My Number Card IC chip must first receive a public notice designation from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications. The Digital Agency’s My Number Card Private Sector Utilization Team oversees the process.
Toshiba Digital Engineering’s approved application is focused on healthcare identity: it will handle verification of identification and certification of persons registered in a medical information database for regional medical care. The use case extends the card’s utility into clinical record management and health information workflows, where secure identity verification is a critical requirement.
The move marks a significant expansion of the My Number Card’s scope. Since its introduction as a government-issued personal identification document, the card has been steadily extended to new use cases. Japan made the card available in Apple Wallet last year, becoming the first country outside the United States to support Apple’s digital ID functionality. Android wallet integration is also on the roadmap for 2026.
The free-space framework treats the IC chip as a managed platform: government credentials occupy designated partitions, while separately authorized private-sector applications can operate in the remaining space under strict regulatory oversight. Each deployment must be publicly registered, with the use case and scope defined before installation. This distinguishes the Japanese model from more open app-platform approaches and keeps the card within a controlled government authorization structure.
By extending the card beyond government services while maintaining mandatory authorization gates for each private-sector use case, Japan is positioning the My Number Card as a broader identity platform capable of serving both public administration and regulated commercial applications from a single smart card.
The Digital Agency has indicated it will continue to accept and process applications from additional private-sector implementers seeking to use the IC chip’s free space for approved purposes.
Sources: Japan Digital Agency
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
