Current Situation of
Japanese fragmented ID Platforms
Dec. 2018
JCB Co., Ltd.
*The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own
and do not reflect the view of JCB Co., Ltd.
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Agenda
1. Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
• “Fragmented" ID Platforms established by Japanese big companies
• Lack of Interoperability between platforms
2. Lack of Central Social ID system in Japan
• Heavily dependent on Driving License for KYC process
• Failed "My number (Japanese social security and tax number system)" expansion
3. My Opinion
• Necessity of “loose” ID federation in Japan Market
• Basic use case
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① Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
Fragmented ID Platforms established by Japanese big companies
• Japanese Big Companies have tendency to establish their own “Platform”.
(E-commerce, SNS, Mobile Carrier, Automotive, Railways, Airlines, Department Store… )
Toyota
”My Toyota”
NTT Docomo
”d Account”
Yahoo Japan
”Yahoo ID”
JR East
(Former National Railway)
”JRE Point”
Rakuten
”My Rakuten”
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① Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
Fragmented ID Platforms established by Japanese big companies (Cont.)
• Japanese Big Companies often become to diversified “Conglomerate”.
(…and often issue their own credit card as “issuer” and provide “mileage” to their users.)
• This situation is mainly due to “loose” regulation to prohibit other business for Big Companies
in Japan.
Department Store
Supermarket
Real Estate
Developer
Construction
company
Bus Operator
International
AirPort
Ex.1: Railways Company
Ex.2: Mobile Carrier
Hotels
Education
(Univ. etc)
Electricity
Railways
Mobile Carrier
Retail Financial
service
Online Banking
Cable TV
Life Insurance
E-Commerce
Electricity
Non-life
Insurance
Education
E-Money
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① Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
Fragmented ID Platforms established by Japanese big companies (Cont.)
• In some area, Japanese local services can compete against Facebook and Amazon today.
• Based on this situation, Japanese “old type” big companies think;
“GAFA is very strong, but Japanese market have not occupied by them.”
E-Commerce (Share of B2C Trading volume )
≒
SNS (Monthly Active Users)
<
30,000,000 76,000,000
20% 20%
[Sources]Gaiax (2018), Jetro (2017)
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① Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
Fragmented ID Platforms established by Japanese big companies (Cont.)
• ..as the result, everything become “fragmented” in Japan.
(when they want to tie their customer to their ecosystem, the easiest way is tying their customer to their payment method with
their own mileage program.)
..and today, third party QR Payments are additionally joined.
Rakuten
Ex.: Payment Method Acceptance (at Seven-Eleven)
(Prepaid)
(Credit Card including Contactless)
Railways
Seven-Eleven
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① Japanese "fragmented" ID Platforms
Lack of Interoperability between Platforms
• Japanese Big Companies like to establish their “Original Format” Platform.
• And they want to keep(enclose) their data on their Platform.
Ex: Large Railways said
“we connected our mobile
APP to share time table of
every companies!”
…but just jumped to each
companies’ website...
[Source]app-renkei.jp
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② Lack of Central Social ID system in Japan
Heavily dependent on Driving License for KYC process
• Almost of KYC process in Japan, Driving license has taken up dominant position.
Ex: Issuing Credit Card
First Priority:
Driving license
If don’t have Driving license,
can choose from; passport,
“My Number” card,
residence certificate etc.
[Source]JCB
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② Lack of Central Social ID system in Japan
Failed "My number (Japanese social security and tax number system)" expansion
• Japanese government want to expanding usage of “My Number” card for Japanese Social ID
system.
• …but today, almost of Japanese people don’t use “My Number” as Social ID card.
(Only 10% of Japanese people have “My number” card.)
Storing Digital
Signature that can
use Public KYC
…and it can be
readable from some
of Android devices by
using NFC reader.
It is able to request
issuing “My number”
card from vending photo
machine.
(It sounds convenient! )
…but it takes about 1.5
months to get “My
number” card from local
government.
[Sources] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, DNP
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③ My Opinion
Necessity of “loose” ID federation in Japan Market
<From Companies Strategy>
• Some companies (I assume NTT docomo, Yahoo Japan and Line) want to take up a dominant position of
“Social ID login”. (of course, including Facebook and Google)
• But, I assume Japanese “old type” big companies don’t want to establish “external strongly centralized ID
Hub” because they want to stand directly in front of their customer.
<From current situation of KYC process in Japan>
• Japanese KYC Process is heavily depend on drivers license and “verified” (and met AML law regulation)
KYC data is stored only at Banks or Credit card Companies in general.
• When the sharing economy is expanding, I assume AML regulation is critical problem, but most of
companies (expecting Financial Institutions) don’t have such data.
• In Japan, I assume “Loose” ID federation between companies, financial intuitions and
governmental bodies is needed.
• To realize this concept, the scheme for DIDs and Self sovereign (especially on consent
management) will become Key Module.
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③ My Opinion
Basic use case
Car Share Platform
Car Owner
Register to Car Share Platform
User
Use the car through the Platform
Pay Fees
• Today, Boryokudan (Japanese Mafias) isn’t prohibited strictly buying cars from car dealers.
(Actually in Japan, Boryokudan member ride cars normally)
• When the scheme described above is worked, Boryokudan can get money by lending their car.
(From AML view, this is not permitted)
• I assume Car Share Platform Provider want to get KYC information of Car Owner and User
easily.
Get Money
Thank you for your attention!
Automatic Identification Standards
Shigeya Suzuki, Ph.D
Associate Director, Technology Officer, Blockchain Laboratory, Keio Research Institute at SFC
Associate Director, Auto-ID Lab Japan, Keio Research Institute at SFC
Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
shigeya@wide.ad.jp
11 November, 2018 @ W3C Workshop on Strong Authentication and Identity
UPC
2016
UPC to Product Information
• “323900039629”
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https://www.target.com/p/vicks-vapocool-medicated-throat-drops-menthol-50ct/-/A-75557582
2016
GS1 Standards
• Identify, Capture, and Share
• Identify: Standards for the identification of items, locations,
shipments, assets, etc. and its associated data
• Capture: Standards for encoding and capturing data in physical
data carriers
•
Share: Standards for sharing data between parties
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https://www.gs1.org/docs/architecture/GS1_System_Landscape.pdf
2016
GS1 Identification Key
• Identify either class or instance
• Unique and unambiguous within their domains
• Domains includes, not limited to:
– Trade items (i.e., Global Trade Item Number — GTIN)
– Logistic units (i.e., Serial Shipping Container Code — SSCC)
– Assets (i.e., Global Individual Asset Identifier — GIAI)
– Locations (i.e., Global Location Number — GLN)
17
2016
GS1 Identification Key
• Trade items (i.e., Global Trade Item Number — GTIN)
• Logistic units (i.e., Serial Shipping Container Code — SSCC)
• Assets (i.e., Global Individual Asset Identifier — GIAI)
• Locations (i.e., Global Location Number — GLN)
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urn:epc:id:sgtin:CompanyPrefix.IndicatorPlusItemReference.SerialReference
urn:epc:id:sscc:CompanyPrefix.ExtensionPlusSerialReference
urn:epc:id:giai:CompanyPrefix.Individual AssetReference
urn:epc:id:sgln:CompanyPrefix.LocationReference.Extension
2016
Physical Representation
• Barcode
• RFID
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2016
Application: Authenticity Verification
• New, soon-to-be-standard:
“GS1 Lightweight Messaging Standard for Verification”
• REST-like query interface,
results in JSON (new in GS1 Standards),
GS1 Keys embedded in URL
• Resolver resolve the results
• Use case: US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)
compliance
20
2016
Difficulty on Resolving Services
• Object Naming System (ONS)
– DNS Based (part of) GS1 Key to server mapping service
– Not used other than research purpose
• Discovery Services
– Centralized service to provide GS1 Key to servers mapping service
– Design work suspended until there is a well-defined demands from
industry
• But.. Lately, there is renewed interest in mapping between
identifiers and associated data, together with verification of
identifiers
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2016
Difficulty and Possibility
• GS1 is the standard on product and business entity identification
• DID focuses on digital identity
• We need cyber-physical link other than human
• Allow to use broader range of IDs (including GS1 Keys) in “id”
fields makes DID related standards more interesting
• There is a good intersection between both of the works
– i.e., Product authenticity proof without accessing servers
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