In addition, Japan's second largest city of Yokohama said it will send information on each of its 3.5 million residents only with their permission.

"In order to protect our residents' privacy, we decided not to participate in the resident register network system until the (data protection law) is enacted," said Nobuo Hoshino, mayor of Kokubunji, in a statement on Aug. 2. Other local government heads who said they will not participate stated similar reasons.
{Japan's national ID attempt. notice the autonomous cohesion and independent strength of the municipal body there. for all that 70's and 80's stereotype of Japanese conformist/insect hive-mindedness, it looks like they're less sheeplike than we are, in some areas anyway.}