This illustration shows a person viewing an online lecture to renew their license for drivers with good records.

       TOKYO -- The National Police Agency (NPA) is set to start a trial run of online lectures for drivers with good records when they renew their licenses from Feb. 1 next year in Hokkaido, Chiba, Kyoto and Yamaguchi prefectures, as part of efforts to digitalize administrative procedures, it was announced on Dec. 9.

       The new service will be available to holders of the government-issued "My Number" individual identification cards when they renew their so-called "gold" licenses for drivers who were free of traffic accidents or violations over the preceding five years.

       The trial run will cover drivers aged 69 and under whose residential addresses are registered in those four prefectures. Based on the My Number card issuance rate, it is estimated that some 35,000 people per month will be eligible for the online lectures. After verifying the trial results, the NPA plans to implement the service across the nation starting at the end of fiscal 2024.

       The about 30-minute lecture video will be distributed to users' smartphones and personal computers, and will be accessible round the clock.

       This image provided by the National Police Agency shows a smartphone screen explaining how to scan one's My Number identification card when viewing an online lecture for ticket-free drivers.

       Users will need to access dedicated websites of each prefectural police department and scan registration information by holding a smartphone over their My Number card, before entering their code for personal identification.

       Users can then view the video, designed not to be fast-forwarded. The movie comes in three parts, for each of which a small test will be given. While viewers can proceed to watch the video even if they fail an exam, they are asked to photograph their head shot and send it each time the test is over, as part of anti-spoofing measures.

       While the lectures are available online, license holders will need to physically show up at driver's license centers and other places to actually apply to update their licenses. Police officials will confirm the applicants' lecture viewing information saved in a system, as well as photos they sent, and conduct eyesight and other checks before issuing a new driving license.

       While there are holders of accident-free driver licenses among the elderly aged 70 and over, they will not be subject to the trial run as they need to sit for lectures for senior drivers when they update their licenses. In 2020, there were 9.38 million people across the country who attended lectures for ticket-free drivers at the time of their license renewal.

       (Japanese original by Naritake Machida, Tokyo City News Department)

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