Written opinions calling for the government to postpone the Aug. 5 introduction of a nationwide resident registry network have been endorsed by 59 local assemblies nationwide, a group of lawmakers said Tuesday, quoting home affairs ministry officials.
The 59 include the Mie and Tottori prefectural assemblies, 19 assemblies in cities, 25 in towns and 13 in villages, the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry explained during a panel meeting Tuesday of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The 59 assemblies are in 26 prefectures.
Tokyo ranked first with nine municipal assemblies adopting such opinions, followed by seven in Hokkaido and six in Nagano Prefecture.
Apart from the 59, four city mayors in Tokyo and the head of a village in Nara Prefecture have also submitted petitions to the ministry urging a delay in introducing the system, the lawmakers quoted the officials as adding.
The system would link basic residency registries held by municipalities by encoding information about people -- a person's name, address, date of birth and gender -- alongside an 11-digit individual number.
The system is to be introduced in accordance with the amended Law of the Basic Resident Registers. The amendment was enacted in August 1999.