← Back to all posts

How to Get a My Number Card in Japan as a Foreign Resident: Who Gets One, How to Apply, and What It Is For

NewsOtherGeneral

By iStart Editorial Team·Published October 29, 2026

How to Get a My Number Card in Japan as a Foreign Resident: Who Gets One, How to Apply, and What It Is For

Weeks after you registered at city hall, an envelope arrived by registered mail: an Individual Number Notice, a form you could not fully read, a QR code. What is it, and do you need it? The procedure is simpler than it looks.

Every foreign resident who registers an address in Japan is given a 12-digit Individual Number. The My Number Card, officially the Individual Number Card, is separate: you apply for it, it is optional, and applying currently costs nothing. If you came through the Specified Skilled Worker route, this is life after arrival.

Who Gets a My Number, and Who Gets the Card

The Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems (J-LIS) says: "Even residents of other countries receive Individual Number Notices if they move to Japan and register their residence." The Notice arrives by registered mail two to three weeks after you register, and your number stays the same for life, even if you leave and return. Keep it safe: it is not ID and cannot be reissued.

In the Digital Agency's words: "My Number and My Number Card are two different things." The card carries your photo and an IC chip, and J-LIS calls applying "not a mandatory requirement." It does not replace your Residence Card, which stays your immigration document. An older paper Notification Card, issued until May 2020, also works to apply; you return it on collection.

Getting a My Number Card in Japan, step by step, on the ordinary route as J-LIS describes it: the Individual Number Notice arrives by registered mail with your application form; apply by smartphone, computer, ID photo booth or mail; your municipality mails you an issue notice postcard; collect the card in person with the postcard and an ID with your photo; set your PINs, decided in advance, at the counter. Applying for the card is optional.

How to Apply as a Foreign Resident

You apply with the Individual Number Card application form that comes with the Notice. It carries a 23-digit Application ID and a QR code, and there are four routes:

  • Smartphone: scan the QR code, register an email address, add your photo and date of birth.
  • Computer: enter the Application ID on the online application site and upload a photo.
  • ID photo booth: select the application on screen, pay for the photograph, scan the QR code. Not every booth offers it.
  • Mail: sign the application form, attach a photo and post it in the free return envelope.

J-LIS notes the online application site's pages "are written in Japanese." The mail route avoids that, using a downloadable handwritten form in Tagalog or English, and city hall can issue a new application form free of charge if you have none. The photo must be taken within six months, facing front, with no hat and no background; J-LIS says faulty photos are the most common reason applications come back.

The government's brochure for foreign residents, on the J-LIS site, says: the mailed form cannot be used if the name, address or expiry date on your Residence Card has changed, or if it has expired. And if your Residence Card expires within one month, renew it with immigration first, then apply at your municipal office.

Just arrived? J-LIS's express issuance covers "persons having moved in from overseas": apply in person at the counter within 30 days, and, in principle, delivery to your registered address follows within one week. Your municipality will confirm whether you qualify.

Collection Day and Your PINs

Collection is in person, about a month after you apply, when the municipality mails you an issue notice, a postcard. Until then, the Application Status Inquiry Service tracks the application using your 23-digit Application ID and date of birth.

Go to the counter named on the postcard by the date it gives. Bring the postcard, an identity verification document with your photo (your Residence Card is on the accepted list) and any Notification Card.

At the counter you set PINs: 6 to 16 capital letters and numbers for the electronic certificate used to sign documents, and four digits for the others. Choose them in advance, avoid birthdays, and keep them out of your wallet.

What the Card Is For Now: Health Insurance First

The old paper health insurance certificates are gone: the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) says they stopped being issued on 2 December 2024 and their validity ended on 1 December 2025. Today, at a clinic or pharmacy, you show either your My Number Card registered as your health insurance card or a Health Insurance Eligibility Certificate, which, for now, MHLW says is issued free and without an application to anyone without one registered.

J-LIS says "You can still receive medical care covered by health insurance as usual." To use it at the clinic, register through Mynaportal or at the clinic's reader, on the spot. After a job change, if the reader shows no record, the Digital Agency says to contact your insurer.

Beyond the clinic, where you must show both your number and who you are, it is, in J-LIS's words, "the only card which satisfies both needs by itself." Its electronic certificate lets you complete administrative procedures online, such as e-Tax. Where your municipality offers it, you can obtain certificates at convenience stores, such as a copy of your resident record, from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. If you drive, it can also carry your driver's license information as a Myna Driver's License Card, set up at a driver's license center.

The card is not the career, but it is the paperwork that lets one move: changing employers or renewing your status runs on current documents and a correct address.

A Filipino worker ties tomato vines to their support strings in a greenhouse in Japan in soft morning light, absorbed in his work.

Renewing, Updating, and Leaving Japan

Renewal is free and can start three months before expiry. J-LIS gives the general rule: for anyone 18 or over at issue, the electronic certificate runs to the 5th birthday after issue, and the card's validity period, printed on its face, to the 10th. A Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ordinance caps it at the end of your period of stay if you hold a Residence Card and are not a permanent resident or a Highly Skilled Professional (ii). If a renewal or change of status extends your stay, you can ask your municipal office, showing the card, to move its expiry to match, never past the general limit. J-LIS says a notice comes about two to three months before expiry; re-apply by the same four routes and collect the replacement with the old one in hand. The electronic certificate is renewed in person; J-LIS says "online renewal is not available."

A new address or name must be recorded at city hall within 14 days. Lost it? Report it to the police and call to suspend it, day or night. For express reissue after a loss, J-LIS lists a 2,000-yen fee, or 1,800 yen without electronic certificates; for the ordinary route, ask your municipal office.

When your contract ends and you move out of Japan, the Digital Agency says people without Japanese nationality are required to return the card. It is invalidated, and after the return procedure you can ask for it back with holes punched, so you keep a record of your number.

Keep Your PIN and Your Privacy Safe

Give your number only for procedures set by law: the Digital Agency names employers, tax and pension offices, Hello Work, local governments, health insurance associations and financial institutions. The government's brochure adds that asking for someone else's is prohibited by law.

J-LIS warns about callers who offer to handle your renewal and ask for your card and PIN: "Never provide your Individual Number Card or PIN number to an unknown third party." The brochure lists two toll-free lines with Tagalog support: 0120-0178-26 for the system, and 0120-0178-27 for the card, including suspending a lost one.

Before You Go to the Municipal Office

  • Confirm your Residence Card is current, with over a month left.
  • The Individual Number Notice, or the Individual Number Card application form with its 23-digit Application ID.
  • A photo from the last six months, plain background.
  • Your two PINs, decided in advance.
  • The issue notice postcard and any Notification Card, on collection day.
  • Every move reported within 14 days.

The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most

Do I have to get a My Number Card? No. It is optional; without one registered, you show the eligibility certificate at the clinic instead.

How do I renew my My Number Card in Japan? Re-apply by any of the four routes from three months before expiry; it is free, and the electronic certificate is renewed in person.

Can I apply if I can't read Japanese? Yes. The mail route uses the handwritten form in Tagalog or English, and the toll-free lines take Tagalog.

Sources