The text on certificates and documents will change

The government is promoting the unification and standardization of systems commonly used by local governments across the country (*1). In response to the government's policy, Niseko Town will change the characters used in its main business systems (*2) to "Administrative office standard charactersWe would like to inform you that we have decided to gradually change the name to "."

Due to this change, there may be some changes to the shape of the characters used for addresses (names and addresses) on copies of juminhyo (certificate of residence) certificates issued by Niseko Town, various certificates, and notices sent to town residents.

The background to this is that until now, each local government has had its own set of computer-managed characters, making it difficult to provide efficient administrative services or respond quickly in the event of a large-scale disaster. To resolve this issue and facilitate administrative processing in a digital society, the national government has introduced the "Standard Characters for Administrative Affairs" as a unified standard. This standard will allow all local governments to use a common set of characters.

By adopting the "Standard Characters for Administrative Affairs," Niseko Town aims to improve services for its residents, create an environment in which new services can be rapidly developed, and lead to more convenient and prosperous lives for its residents.

In order for all local governments to use the same characters to streamline administrative work, the characters used on copies of juminhyo (certificate of residence) certificates and addresses on mail sent to you by local governments may have a different design than before.

There may be changes within the scope of design differences (differences in character shape), such as the size of the radical, differences in bends, differences in some lengths, etc. The structure of the kanji (differences in character style) remains the same.

It will be gradually introduced from fiscal year 2025.The start date of implementation and the types of certificates and mail items covered will vary depending on the local government.

The "Standard Characters for Administrative Affairs" are being introduced to enable all local governments to use the same characters, enabling efficient administrative services and rapid responses to large-scale disasters. They were created by the Digital Agency based on the standard characters used in family registers and juminhyo (certificate of residence).

Standard characters for administrative affairs are used in certificates issued by local governments, printed materials, computer processing, etc., and do not mean that residents must use the same characters.Family registers will continue to retain the traditional characters.(※3) Handwritten characters can be used in documents as before.

Currently, the national government is working to unify and standardize the business systems (*1) that have been individually built, operated, and managed by each local government until now (*2). In doing so, the principle is that characters will be replaced with "standard characters for administrative affairs," a unified character standard created by the Digital Agency, rather than characters (extraneous characters) that each local government has created independently as characters that are not pre-registered in computers. This will eliminate the effort and cost required for each local government to individually create and check extraneous characters, and will enable efficient administrative services to be provided using the same character standard between different departments and local governments.

*1 Act on Standardization of Local Government Information Systems (Act No. 40 of 2021)
*2 Target systems: The following 20 business systems
(1) Child allowance, (2) Child and childcare support, (3) Basic resident register, (4) Family register attachment,
(5) Seal registration, (6) Voter register management, (7) Fixed asset tax, (8) Individual inhabitant tax,
(9) Corporate resident tax, (10) Light vehicle tax, (11) Family register, (12) School attendance, (13) Health management,
(14) Child support allowance, (15) Public assistance, (16) Welfare for the disabled, (17) Nursing care insurance,
(18) National Health Insurance, (19) Medical Care for the Elderly, (20) National Pension
<(4) Family Register Attachment and (11) Family Register will continue to use the existing characters.>
*3 The Family Register Information System and Family Register Attachment System will make it possible to use the previous character set, character code, and character font as a transitional measure by maintaining the previous character set in correspondence with the standard characters for administrative affairs.