My Japanese ID Card Sat at the Embassy for 2 Months While the Official Tracker Said "Being Issued"
The My Number card is Japan's photo ID card, linked to the personal number ("My Number") that Japan assigns to each resident. If you're picking yours up abroad, the official application status inquiry service can't always be trusted. My card reached the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines on August 12, yet in October the inquiry service still said "My Number card being issued." If the status hasn't moved after two or three months, emailing the My Number card desk at the ward office of your honseki (your registered domicile in Japan's family register) gets you an answer faster than waiting on the inquiry service.
From application to radio silence
I live in the Philippines, and I applied for the version of the My Number card for people who have moved abroad (people who have moved overseas and taken themselves off Japan's resident register). My application was accepted on June 26, and the next day, June 27, it showed "checked, no problems found."
On July 17, an email arrived from the application processing center saying "the procedure for sending the card to the overseas diplomatic mission (an embassy or consulate abroad) has been completed." It said detailed pickup instructions would come later from the mission.
Then, for three months, nothing came from the embassy.
The inquiry service still said "being issued"
By October I figured this was taking far too long and looked into the status.
Just getting to the inquiry service was a struggle. The link I had wouldn't open properly, and in the end I read the HTML of the official site's FAQ page to find the right address (status.kojinbango-card.go.jp).
When I finally got in, the inquiry service showed:
- Application received: June 26
- Check: June 27 (checked, no problems found)
- Status: My Number card being issued
- Date shipped: –
With the shipping date blank, the natural reading is that the card hadn't shipped yet. That contradicted the July 17 email, and the AI assistant that had looked into it for me apologized: "I misread the July 17 email."
The card had been at the embassy since August 12
Nearly four months of "being issued" after a clean check was clearly too long. So I had my AI assistant send an inquiry email to the My Number card desk at the ward office of my honseki. It went out on the night of October 20, and the reply came the next day, October 21.
Here's what it said:
- The card has already been issued
- It was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 17
- It arrived at the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines on August 12
The blank shipping date on the inquiry service was apparently just a display that had never been updated. The ward office also said the embassy should have emailed me pickup instructions, but I searched my mailbox, trash included, and found nothing.
I contacted the embassy that same day. The card was there, and I could pick it up without an appointment. It had been waiting at the embassy for more than two months.
If you're in the same situation
- The inquiry service can lag behind what's actually happening
- If the status hasn't moved after two or three months, email the My Number card desk at the ward office of your honseki. In my case, the reply came the next day
- The embassy's notification email may never reach you, so once the ward office tells you the card is at the embassy, contact the embassy yourself
The one who apologized was the AI
By the way, the July 17 email had said "the procedure for sending the card to the overseas diplomatic mission has been completed" all along. The AI apologized for misreading the email, but what was wrong wasn't how it read the email. It was the official inquiry service's display.
