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The story
After car-sharing service “Times Car” suffered a cyberattack that leaked driver’s license images and other data, people across Japan have been rushing to get their licenses reissued, fearing impersonation. According to Jiji Press, the National Police Agency is urging banks and other institutions to tighten identity checks, but experts say reissuing a license does little to actually prevent the fraud. On 5ch, a thread lit up with doubts like “What’s the point of reissuing when the leaked image of the old license is still out there?” One explanation that won broad support was that reissuing isn’t meant to stop impersonation itself—it’s a self-defense move so you can later prove “that wasn’t me” if your data gets misused. Others worried that having a reissue on record, tied to a data leak, could count against them when signing contracts like car-sharing memberships.
After car-sharing service “Times Car” was hit by a cyberattack that leaked a large volume of driver’s license images and other personal data, people nationwide have been applying one after another to get their licenses reissued. The move appears driven by anxiety over impersonation and a desire to update the information printed on the card, but the reissue is said to do little to actually prevent harm. The National Police Agency is calling on banks and other institutions to thoroughly verify identities, and is advising the public: “If you suspect fraud or misuse of your personal information, please contact the police immediately.”
Jiji Press
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
And all that actually changes is the last digit, 0 to 1?
Even if it passes, the license itself is already invalid, so the lender's the one at fault for approving it.
Even apps used by tokuryu gangs (loosely-organized, social-media-recruited crime rings) can read that chip
Feels like it won't end up being as big a hassle as people think
Your name getting publicly outed as something embarrassing like "Princess"?
Didn't Mercari and places like that require uploading a license photo as proof of identity?
There are other services too—dating apps, adult content sites—where uploading a license photo gets you verified
So basically, someone could set up accounts in your name on services like these and run wild with them
There was apparently someone who had a credit card issued in their name and had appliances bought with it
Health insurance card, passport
how am I supposed to protect personal info I already handed over to them?
I'd get it if they told ministries and companies to stop collecting anything beyond the bare minimum of personal data, but…
That's something you need to figure out yourself
Self-help comes first
The photo changes too
And once it's folded into the My Number card, it becomes a completely different document
Even if the photo changes,
isn't the police pretty much the only one who can tell the old one isn't valid anymore?
How would you even judge from an image alone that it's invalid while it's still within its expiration date?
The only real fix seems to be opening up a system that lets private businesses check the latest reissue count
But the police, who like to hoard that kind of info, probably won't go for it
It won't stop the places with lax checks
It's there so you can prove "that wasn't me" if a loan gets taken out behind your back
Even one reissue dings your score, and at two they won't lend you a car—my car-share contract got rejected because of it
No way that happens, not with this much of an uproar going on
It's so I can say "that wasn't me" if a loan gets taken out without my knowledge
If you consult the police, get a case number, and reissue citing the leak as the reason, it leaves a paper trail
I'd rather not have the police kicking my door in because it was used in a crime
Ah, so it's not about preventing the misuse itself,
it's updating it so you have proof "that wasn't me" if it does get misused—got it
Got it, so that's what Re: #74 was getting at
but is that actually how it reads?
Terms that violate the law are void
It's not about preventing impersonation
It's self-defense for after you've already been impersonated
The My Number card will probably meet a similar fate eventually too
Blood or saliva DNA
These days AI can even analyze registered fingerprints
Also, if your seal-stamp image gets stolen, it's trivial to make an identical seal
Well, a driver's license was originally just a certificate proving you're qualified to drive—using it as ID was always just a repurposing anyway, so the My Number card should do fine from here on
Honestly, any bank still approving identity checks based on nothing but a copy of a license is way behind the times
Wasn't chip authentication supposed to be mandatory for banks?
Wasn't a My Number required to open a bank account?
So isn't this pointless?
By that logic the IC chip on the license is just wasted tax money too, isn't it just as pointless?
They check the card's thickness too, so an image alone wouldn't cut it
That "we buy online" used bookstore chain did identity checks with nothing but a license photo
Just remembered that
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
For years, the driver’s license was treated as the “ultimate” proof of identity in Japan, but when the image itself leaks—as in this case—a verification method that just checks the number and photo loses much of its bite. As for the “self-help” the National Police Agency keeps invoking, the companies entrusted with the data aren’t exactly blameless either, so how much individuals can realistically be expected to defend against this on their own is really a separate question. Where the thread split was over what reissuing actually accomplishes. Against the hope that “once the photo changes, you should be able to tell the pre-leak license is invalid,” in reality only institutions that can query the police database can determine validity—most private businesses verify identity purely by how the image looks. So reissuing isn’t really a safeguard against impersonation itself; it functions more as creating a record you can point to later, to claim “that wasn’t me” if the data gets misused. There was also unease that having a reissue history tied to a data leak might mark someone as a “high-risk customer” in contracts like car-sharing memberships—raising the broader question of why the victims end up bearing the disadvantage.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “License Photo Leak Sparks Wave of Reissue Requests.”
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