It’s been widely reported that driver’s licences are going to be merged with MyNumber cards in 2025 or 2026. This is part of the government’s program to make the “optional” MyNumber cards mandatory.
That got me thinking… How is this going to work for people who travel overseas? Most countries require visitors to carry their original licence plus an international permit (basically a standardised translation). But the MyNumber card looks nothing like a driver’s licence and there is no place to print standard information like birthdate, licence number and licence expiry (which would be different to MyNumber expiry).
I can see this causing huge problems. When presented with a MyNumber card that appears to mismatch the the IDP, police in other countries may feel they have probable cause for an arrest for unlicenced driving.
I guess they could redesign the MyNumber card. And hell could freeze over.
What are the chances that the bureaucracy hasn’t thought about this at all?
6 comments
They could just print your mynumber on your license 😇
That’s just a proposal at this point, it hasn’t been decided yet, AFAIK.
>I guess they could redesign the MyNumber card.
No, what they can do is redesign the IDP to reflect the text of the MyNumber Card. The license data will be electronic, but they aren’t going to issue you an IDP if your card isn’t linked to a valid license, and the IDP is only valid for one year, so they can make sure that you have at least a year of validity on your license when issuing the IDP, or they can write in another expiry date on the IDP if you need to travel with less than a year left on your license.
I have a source in the government who told me all the details on this plan.
They will issue a new card called “MyLicenseNumber”, which will have the front of the driver’s license on one side, and the front of the MyNumber card on the other. And there will be a second card called “MyLicenseNumberBack”, which will have the back side of both cards. We will have to carry and renew both cards. The renewal process will involve renewing each side separately, on different days and places for each card and side.
They will also issue a new 500 yen coin, which will not work with any of the vending or parking lot machines, just for fun.
The government has an intention to merge driving licenses with MyNumber cards. But no intention to get rid off driving license cards.
So even when merged you will still have a DL card to use verse as with a Japanese issued IDP. But in Japan you will likely need to have a MyNumber card too
Edit: it should mean we can hopefully renew online
It’ll probably work the same way the health insurance card merger works – you still have the other card, you just don’t have to carry it in your wallet anymore but can just leave it at home.