The Noto Peninsula earthquake was the first major earthquake since the nationwide adoption rate of My Number Cards has risen to 73% (as of the end of 2023) due to aggressive promotion measures implemented two years ago. The government has long touted MynaCard as “useful during disaster evacuation,” and this time its ability was put to the test, but as a result, JR East’s Suica was used instead. To. How far will they go to push for a minor one that doesn’t match the actual situation of the disaster? (Joe Miyahata, Ikuko Kihara, Kyoko Ando)
◆Even with a penetration rate of 70%, cards are still safe: “I don’t know how to use them.”
“I applied for and made a reservation online for a survey to prove I was affected by the disaster. I thought it was a good idea to have it, but in the end they ended up having to survey each district, so it was pointless.”
My number card that Mr. Kono requires people to carry when evacuating (partially image processed)
Masami Miyanagi (49), a hairdresser from Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, which suffered major damage from the earthquake, recalls this. She stepped on the glass immediately after the earthquake and cut the sole of her foot. When she went to the hospital a few days later, she produced a paper insurance card. She said, “In the countryside, there are very few opportunities to use it. And I think it’s only available to people of my age. I don’t think it would be possible for the elderly to use it.”
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ishikawa Prefecture’s MynaCard acquisition rate is the 11th highest in the country. However, a 76-year-old man from Anamizu Town said, “I don’t know how to use it. I have it, but I don’t use it on a regular basis.” The man is currently evacuating to a closed elementary school. The card remained in a safe and he did not take it with him when he evacuated. “If you lose it, you’ll be weak, and you can’t carry it around with you. All the elderly people around here will do the same.”
Contrary to the local situation, Digital Minister Taro Kono, who has been forcefully promoting the spread of Myna cards, has been advising evacuees to “recommend Myna cards” since the earthquake struck. On January 4, when the full extent of the disaster was still unknown, he posted on his X (former Twitter), “By logging into MynaPortal from your smartphone…you can share medication information with doctors at evacuation centers, etc.” Posted.
◆Digital Minister Kono calls for “evacuation with Myna Card”
After that, they continued to appeal, and on the 19th, they appealed on X, saying, “As of the 17th, a total of 4,957 applications for disaster victim certificates have been made online through Mynaportal.” At a press conference on the 23rd, he urged people to “not keep their My Number cards in their drawers, but in their wallets and evacuate with them.”
Digital Minister Kono speaks at an online press conference, “Evacuate with your Myna Card”
However, on the 26th, JR East announced its intention to provide assistance to disaster victims by distributing Suica transportation IC cards to evacuees. What happened?
According to the prefecture, the current challenge is understanding the situation of evacuees near primary evacuation centers. Some evacuees move from evacuation center to evacuation center or sleep in their cars, only coming to pick up supplies. According to prefectural statistics, as of the 7th, there are 267 primary evacuation centers and 7,297 evacuees.
Keisuke Bansho, head of the Prefectural Digital Promotion Division, said, “Originally, we wanted to use My Number cards, but many people did not have them, and there was a risk that the card readers would malfunction.Electricity has not yet been restored in some places. “It wasn’t a realistic option.”
◆Know the number of evacuees and the status of receiving supplies with Watermelon
Then, the Digital Agency proposed the use of watermelon, saying, “It was proposed by JR East” (according to an agency official). Register the evacuee’s name, address, date of birth, contact information, etc. on the watermelon. Each time they visit an evacuation center, they use a card reader to read the card and use it to ascertain the number of evacuees at each evacuation center and the status of supplies received.
JR East will provide 21,000 watermelons and 350 card readers for free. On the 7th, they were installed at two evacuation centers in Shiga Town, Ishikawa Prefecture.
A card reader that reads My Number cards installed at a medical institution in Hamamatsu City
A representative from the Digital Agency explained, “We needed a sense of speed in solving problems, so we used watermelon instead.” Chief Bansho said, “It will take time to reissue Myna Cards, so what we can do now is… In the future, it may be useful to understand the situation in temporary housing to prevent lonely deaths, but we are unable to provide specific information. Nothing has been decided yet.”
◆Voices of doubt from disaster victims in Tohoku
Until now, in the event of a wide-area disaster such as an earthquake or eruption, the government has implemented “Maina evacuation” using a smartphone evacuee app and My Number card, which allows people to enter and exit evacuation centers and prepare management reports. It has been touted that administrative procedures such as these can be made more efficient.
Last December, the Digital Agency announced the results of a demonstration project conducted in Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture. In addition to reducing the time required for evacuation center acceptance procedures to one-tenth of the time it would take for disaster victims to fill out forms on paper, approximately 80% of participants used the app to manage their own and their family’s health status in a timely manner. He said he was able to convey the information. On the other hand, there were also opinions that detailed requests were not well communicated.
Hiroshi Takano (80), a former Onagawa town councilor, observed a Maina evacuation drill held in January this year in preparation for a serious accident at the Tohoku Electric Power Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant (Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture, Ishinomaki City). “The power supply was cut off and the evacuation center lost power. Many elderly people did not have the app on their smartphones in the first place,” he said, questioning the effectiveness of the system.
In the first place, if a nuclear power plant accident were to occur, residents who evacuate outside the town would be required to measure radiation levels and undergo decontamination, and would not be able to enter evacuation centers right away. “I can’t imagine a scenario in which MynaCard would be useful in a complex disaster that would be tense even in normal times,” he said, shaking his head.
◆Doctors say, “In the event of a disaster, you don’t need a credit card or insurance card.”
“In the event of a disaster, you don’t have to have an insurance card, a medication notebook, or a MynaCard!” In response to Kono’s press conference on January 23, the National Federation of Health Insurance Doctors Associations (Hodanren), which is made up of approximately 107,000 doctors and dentists, issued a warning on its website.
Victims whose homes were completely or partially destroyed in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake are now able to receive medical insurance by verbally telling them their name, date of birth, medical insurance coverage, etc. at a medical institution, even if they do not have their insurance cards in hand. , measures have been taken to allow for exemption or grace of over-the-counter payments.
Evacuation center in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture = January 11th
“Even though hospitals in the disaster area experienced power outages and communication outages, and Myna insurance cards could not be used, Mr. Kono’s call for people to evacuate along with their cards did not take into account the situation on the ground.” This is how Shogo Honnami, Deputy Director-General of the Secretariat, responded.
It is true that when disaster victims undergoing treatment seek medical care from someone other than their primary care physician due to wide-area evacuations, it is necessary to know their past medical history and drug information to avoid prescribing contraindicated drugs. The system has the advantage of being able to obtain drug information and other information by reading a patient’s health insurance card through the “Online Eligibility Verification System (Onshi),” which medical institutions have been required to implement since April last year.
◆I feel uncomfortable with the “minor” appeal taking advantage of the disaster.
However, on January 19, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued a notice in disaster-stricken areas such as Ishikawa Prefecture that, with the patient’s consent, medical institutions can obtain drug information through online searches even without a Maina insurance card. At the same time, information on patient morbidity held by the Ishikawa Prefecture National Health Insurance Association (National Health Insurance Federation) can also be provided to medical institutions. Honnami says, “In an emergency, it is important for the supporting country to have multiple systems in place so that victims are not burdened.”
Hirotada Hirose, professor emeritus (disaster risk studies) at Tokyo Women’s University, said, “In the event of a disaster, the general rule is to “run away with your life,” even if you don’t have anything.”What would you do if a tsunami hit while you were looking for your Myna Card?” “Mr. Kono’s call does not understand the dangers of disasters and could send the wrong message.”
Even though MynaCard has become popular, one in four people still do not have one. “It’s strange that they seem to be taking advantage of disasters to promote MynaCard. Disaster relief is about responding to ever-changing situations amidst chaos. It’s good to improve efficiency through digitalization, but we’re relying on it too much. They lack the on-the-ground perspective of looking at each individual disaster victim and providing medical support and evacuation center management.”
◆Desk memo
In a demonstration project in Odawara City, the procedure for entering an evacuation center took 26 seconds using MynaCard, which was about 4 minutes shorter than before. However, how much meaning do those four minutes have for the evacuees who were running for their lives? I think it would be much more reassuring to have someone listen to your story and go through the process in those 4 minutes, saying, “It must have been difficult.” (Ayumu)
2024-02-08 03:00:00
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