Maina-Hokensho: Health Insurance Card Going Digital

Maina-Hokensho is the My Number Card registered for health-insurance use, and it is now the standard card to show at clinics and pharmacies.¹² The old plastic insurance card is past its final validity, so every insured resident needs to know the registration step, the reception flow, and the fallback paper.²¹

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Digital Agency site and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) site.

Overview

The マイナ保険証 (maina hokenshō, "health-insurance-use-registered My Number Card") lets staff verify insurance qualification with a card reader instead of a plastic card.² You show either this linked card or the 資格確認書 (shikaku kakuninsho, "Eligibility Confirmation Form") and receive insured care at the same copay ratio as before.¹²

Registration for health-insurance use is a one-time step.¹ Once the card shows as registered, it keeps working across moves and job changes without waiting for a new plastic card, as long as enrollment with the new insurer is complete.¹

Qualification checks differ by insurer and by clinic equipment. Your insurer (employer or municipality) decides how the fallback form reaches you, and each clinic decides when its reader and smartphone support go live, so confirm both before you need care.¹²

What Maina-Hokensho replaces

The former plastic health-insurance card carried your insurance number and was issued by your insurance entity.³ That card was the reception document for decades, and the system has now replaced it with the linked My Number Card.²

New issuance of former cards stopped on 2024-12-02.²⁴ Existing cards stayed valid until their printed expiry, at most until 2025-12-01.⁴³

From 2025-12-02 onward the base mechanism is Maina-Hokensho or the Eligibility Confirmation Form.¹² There is no separate new Maina-Hokensho card to collect; the My Number Card itself becomes the insurance card once the use registration is done.²

Phase-out timeline

The phase-out ran as a dated sequence, not a single overnight switch. The dates below are fixed events, while the usage figures carry their months because adoption kept moving.

New issuance stopped, old cards expired

New issuance stopped on 2024-12-02.²⁴ A job change, move, or insurer change after that date means reception through Maina-Hokensho or the Confirmation Form.⁴²

National Health Insurance and Late-Stage Elderly cards commonly showed printed expiries around July or August 2025.⁴ Many employee-plan cards showed no printed expiry and remained usable until 2025-12-01.⁴

All former cards expired by 2025-12-01.¹² From 2025-12-02 they no longer work as insurance certificates.¹

Expired-card grace period and its end

Clinics temporarily kept receiving patients who brought an expired former card at the normal copay ratio.²⁵ That transitional measure ended on 2026-07-31.²⁵

From August 2026, bringing only an expired former card generally means temporary full payment with a later reimbursement claim to your insurer.⁵ Practitioner reporting describes same-month counter settlement when the patient revisits with Maina-Hokensho or the Confirmation Form, but figures and handling are inconsistently reported.⁵

Registrations reached 94.87 million people (as of 2026-06; confirm current figures with MHLW).⁵ The share of examined patients using Maina-Hokensho was 69 percent (as of 2026-05).⁵

Registering your card for health-insurance use

Three first-time registration paths exist, and any one of them completes the job.¹² Pick the one that fits your situation rather than trying all three.

Card reader at clinics and pharmacies

Place your My Number Card on the 顔認証付きカードリーダー (kao-ninshō-tsuki kādo rīdā, "card reader with facial recognition") and select the register-as-health-insurance button, then follow the on-screen steps.¹ Patients unsure of their status can check and register on the spot the same way.²

Readers come from five manufacturers, so screens look different by clinic.¹ The sequence stays the same across models.¹

My Number Portal from phone or PC

Log in to the マイナポータル (mainapōtaru, "MynaPortal, government online-service portal") and check the health-insurance-card item, then press Register.¹² Keep the card and the 4-digit PIN set at issuance at hand.²

Check status at MynaPortal Home under Registration Status Confirmation.¹ The label Registered means the card is ready for reception.¹

Register at home before a sick day forces the issue

MynaPortal registration takes a few minutes when you are well and have the PIN ready.¹ Doing it during a fever or injury, at a crowded reception, is the harder version of the same task.

Seven Bank ATM

First-time registration is available at Seven Bank ATMs nationwide.¹² Use a nearby machine and follow the My Number Card menu.¹

This path suits residents whose phone cannot read the card. The result is identical to the other two paths.¹²

Using it at clinics and pharmacies

Reception-capable facilities are those with the face-recognition reader installed.² Rollout timing differs by facility, so a large hospital and a small clinic on the same street can be at different stages.¹²

Once qualification is verified through the card or a fallback paper, you pay only the usual 10 to 30 percent copay at reception.⁶ The card does not change what care costs; it changes how qualification is proven.⁶

Reception steps and consent screens

The reception sequence runs in four steps.¹ Insert the card into the reader, verify identity by face recognition or 4-digit PIN, choose consent for sharing past care and checkup info, and take the card when reception completes.¹

The face path photographs automatically when your face fits the frame.¹ The PIN path uses the 4-digit number set when the card was issued.¹

Consent covers past treatment and prescribed-drug information plus specified checkup results, including the metabolic check for ages 40 to 74 and the elderly check for 75 plus.¹ Only the items you agree to are shared.¹

High-cost care and data sharing benefits

High-Cost Medical Care Benefit linkage removes the advance paperwork and the over-limit counter payment when you use Maina-Hokensho.¹⁴ Since October 2024 the limit-info consent is linked automatically without a separate input.¹

With consent, doctors and pharmacists see accurate shared medication and treatment history, including in-hospital prescribed drugs missing from paper medicine notebooks.⁴ Electronic-prescription pharmacies check interactions and duplicate dosing against the latest shared data.⁴

The card chip itself holds no tax, pension, or medical-history data.⁴ Medical information opens only after chip authentication plus face or PIN, and only for consented items.⁴

Foreign residents: same system, same steps

The system works the same for foreign residents.³ There is no separate foreign-resident card or separate reception line; register the linkage at MynaPortal or through the same three paths.¹³

Municipal foreign-resident guidance in Nagoya states the same rule in English: former-card issuance ended, existing cards worked to at most 2025-12-01, and reception now runs on Maina-Hokensho or the Confirmation Form at the same copay.³ That wording matches the national pages, which draw no nationality distinction.²¹

The Confirmation Form is issued free by your enrolled insurer, meaning your employer or local government, when you hold no My Number Card or have not registered health-insurance use.¹³ In principle no application is needed for that first delivery.¹

My Number Card application information is published in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.⁶ The reception steps themselves are the same regardless of which language you used to apply.⁶

Job changes create the most common foreign-resident hiccup

After a job change the new insurer must register the new qualification, a step the law expects within 10 days of the qualification date.⁴ A Qualification-less display at reception usually means that insurer step is still pending, so contact your insurer rather than retrying the reader.⁴

When it does not work: fallback documents and friction

If Maina-Hokensho reception fails for any reason, staff confirm qualification by another method so you pay the correct copay ratio, not 100 percent.² Documented friction includes reader failures, both face and PIN failing, power or system outages, and insurer-registration lag after job changes.⁴

The table below keeps the three fallback papers apart. Only one of them works alone.

Paper	Works alone	When to show it
Eligibility Confirmation Form	Yes	No linked card, or reader and portal both unusable
Eligibility Information Notice plus My Number Card	No, paired only	Card cannot be read but you carry the mailed notice
Downloaded MynaPortal qualification screen	Yes, as a screen	System outage or reader failure with phone in hand

Eligibility Confirmation Form instead of Maina-Hokensho

The Confirmation Form is issued free by your medical insurer and presented alone at reception like the former card.¹² Formats vary by insurer, and explanatory materials describe a maximum validity of 5 years, though figures are inconsistently reported.²

For the time being, people without Maina-Hokensho receive the form without applying.² Linked-card holders who still want one apply through their insurer: the municipal counter for municipal National Health Insurance, the union or prefecture counter for National Health Insurance unions, or the insurer site for employee plans.²

Unregistration from health-insurance use has been accepted at each insurer since October 2024.⁴ Contact your own insurer to file it.⁴

Eligibility Information Notice plus card

The 資格情報のお知らせ (shikaku jōhō no oshirase, "Eligibility Information Notice") is mailed to relevant persons and supports reception together with the My Number Card.⁴ It cannot be used alone.⁴

MynaPortal insurance-qualification screens can be downloaded to a smartphone and shown at reception.⁴ A downloaded screen works even when the portal itself is unreachable at the clinic.⁴

Card expiry, loss, and reader trouble

When neither face nor PIN works, staff switch to a visual check of the card photo, called operator visual mode.⁴ Wheelchair users get wide-angle or detachable readers, or visual mode when the counter height makes the terminal hard to operate.⁴

Watch two expiries separately: the card body lasts to the 10th birthday after issuance (5th for minors) while the electronic certificate lasts to the 5th birthday after issuance.² Renewal notices arrive about 2 to 3 months before expiry, and renewal happens at the municipal counter.²

Even after a missed renewal, the card stays usable as a health-insurance certificate for 3 months after electronic-certificate expiry.² Only insurance qualification works in that window; treatment and drug-info sharing do not.²

A lost card is suspended through the 24-hour My Number hotline at 0120-95-0178, then reissued at the municipality of residence.⁴ Express reissue in about 5 days minimum has been available (as of 2024-12; confirm current timelines with your municipality).⁴

Smartphone-based Maina-Hokensho began on 2025-09-19 at ready facilities, covering iPhone My Number Cards and Android electronic certificates.²¹ Confirm facility support before visiting, since rollout remains sequential.¹

Good to know

The old plastic card no longer works at reception after the grace period

Former cards are past all validity: the 2025-12-01 expiry plus the 2026-07-31 grace end.²⁵ Presenting only an expired card now risks temporary full payment with a later claim.⁵

Check your electronic certificate expiry before you need care

The card body and the electronic certificate expire on different birthdays, and only the certificate carries the 3-month insurance grace.² Arriving with an expired certificate without knowing the distinction is a documented reception failure path, and MHLW tells patients to check expiry in advance.²

A clinic without a reader is a before-you-go check, not a surprise

Reader installation and smartphone support still differ by clinic and pharmacy, and MHLW publishes a searchable facility list.² Except narrow handwriting-billing exceptions, insurer-covered facilities must accept Maina-Hokensho reception, but device readiness still varies, so confirm before visiting.⁴²

Keep the confirmation form even after you register, if your insurer issued one

Bringing both the linked card and the Confirmation Form is explicitly allowed.² The Notice alone never suffices, but the Confirmation Form alone does, and official quick materials warn against confusing the two.²

See also

• Health Insurance and Pension for Freelancers
• My Number Reporting for Bank Accounts
• NHI Enrollment at the Ward Office
• How Japan's Universal-Coverage System Works
• The High-Cost-Catch (Kogaku Ryoyohi) System
• What to Bring to the ER

References

Footnotes

1. Digital Agency. Use of health insurance card in My Number Card (English). Updated 2026-02-19. https://www.digital.go.jp/en/policies/mynumber/insurance-card ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶

2. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). マイナンバーカードの健康保険証利用（マイナ保険証）について. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_08277.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹ ↩⁴⁰

3. Nagoya International Center. Myna Health Insurance Card: about Health Insurance. 2025-02-14. https://www.nic-nagoya.or.jp/en/living-in-nagoya/living-information/living_information/2025/02141010.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Digital Agency. よくある質問：マイナンバーカードの健康保険証利用について. Updated 2025-03-04. https://www.digital.go.jp/policies/mynumber/faq-insurance-card ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

5. Jiji Press via Jiji.com. 期限切れ保険証、今月末で終了 マイナに完全移行へ. 2026-07-27. https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?g=soc&k=2026072700072 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

6. MHLW. My Number Card (Individual Number Card) as your Health Insurance Certificate (English PDF). https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/12400000/001406614.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴