Japan: My Number Card on Android started on 20 October 2026, and gBizPortal adds commercial-registry remote e-signatures

Japan: My Number Card on Android started on 20 October 2026, and gBizPortal adds commercial-registry remote e-signatures

2 October 2026: Japan's Digital Agency has announced two changes to the country's digital identity infrastructure, one for people and one for companies. Both matter to businesses that verify customers or sign documents with the government.

Not yet independently verified. The Android launch on 20 October 2026 is confirmed by Impress Watch's report of that day; the gBizPortal e-signature change of 30 September rests on the Digital Agency's own announcement, which we read in Japanese. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

My Number Card on Android, from 20 October

The Digital Agency said on 2 October 2026 that the My Number Card on Android would launch on 20 October 2026, and it did (Impress Watch, 20 October). It adds an "attribute certification" function: from that date, services can check a person's identity, age and place of residence in person from the card held in an Android phone, rather than from the physical card.

Services have to support reading it. The agency offers a free face-to-face verification app for businesses that check identity at a counter. Only Android devices whose security chip meets a set standard are supported; the list of supported handsets is initially limited and is to be widened.

gBizPortal: company e-signatures without software

On 30 September 2026 the agency's gBizPortal, the online gateway companies use for government procedures, began offering electronic signatures in its e-locker using the Ministry of Justice's commercial registration remote signing service. A company can sign any PDF stored in the e-locker, such as notifications and permit applications, fully in the browser, without installing signing driver software. It is the first service to use the system-link mode of the remote signing service, which the Ministry of Justice started on 21 July 2026.

To use it, a company needs a GビズID Prime account and a commercial registration electronic certificate registered with the remote signing system. The representative approves each signature with an authorisation code from the GビズID app.

What to do

• Retailers, banks, telecom shops, rental and age-restricted businesses in Japan that check identity at the counter: decide whether to accept the Android card from 20 October and test the free verification app.
• Identity-verification and onboarding vendors serving Japan: add support for the smartphone card where your product reads My Number cards.
• Companies filing with the government in Japan: register the company certificate for remote signing and retire the old driver-based signing set-up where possible.

Sources

• Digital Agency: Android My Number Card service news (announcement of 2 October 2026) - 2 October 2026
• Digital Agency: gBizPortal news, e-signatures with commercial registration remote signing in the e-locker - 1 October 2026
• Impress Watch: Android My Number Card service starts - 20 October 2026