A panel of the health and welfare ministry has written a basic plan to introduce a social security card, an IC card that will integrate the functions of the pension booklet, health insurance card and nursing care insurance card. The ministry hopes to introduce the card in fiscal 2011, with demonstration tests planned in some municipalities this summer.

The social security card will carry only the holder's name and date of birth on its surface while containing an encryption system for identification. When inserted into a reading machine, the card will access relevant information stored in the computers for the pension, health insurance and nursing care insurance systems via a relay data base. Thus the holder of the card will be able to know information such as the amount of pension premiums he or she has paid as well as medical and nursing care services he or she has received.

The ministry says one of the card's merits is that it will tend to prevent situations in which a person who has withdrawn from a health insurance plan continues to receive medical treatment under the plan. The advantage to medical institutions will be to reduce the amount of their unrecoverable fees.