Topic starter
12/07/2026 12:27 pm
TL;DR: Japan’s Digital Agency has set out how the iPhone my number card will combine public personal certification and card surface information, while separating it from Apple Wallet, and notes further changes through 2028, according to Cybertrust Japan’s summary of the 2025 update. The operational issue is not the mobile wallet label itself, but which identity proofing and attribute sources are legally recognised and how organisations must adapt their verification flows.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Cybertrust Japan: “ãiPhone ã®ãã¤ãã³ãã¼ã«ã¼ãã㨠AppleWallet ã¨ã®é¢ä¿æ§ã¯ï¼”.
Key questions
Q: How should organisations decide whether a mobile identity method is acceptable for onboarding?
A: Base the decision on the legally recognised proofing method and the assurance it provides, not on whether the credential appears in a wallet or on a phone.
Q: What are the main governance risks in wallet-based identity flows?
A: The main risks are weak issuer trust, poor revocation handling, inconsistent assurance levels, and unclear consent records.
Q: What should teams review before supporting a new mobile identity credential?
A: They should review acceptance policy, evidence provenance, legal basis, and service-provider implementation dependencies.
Practitioner guidance
- Define method-level acceptance rules Document which identity proofing methods are legally accepted for each service, and do not infer acceptance from the presence of a wallet or phone-based display alone.
- Separate proofing from presentation Review onboarding and authentication flows so card-surface information, wallet presentation, and public personal certification are handled as different trust inputs.
- Rework service-provider dependencies Check which application and web-service journeys rely on a single mobile identity path, then identify where alternate proofing methods will be needed as legal rules change.
Bottom line: The article is really about proofing governance, not about mobile wallet branding or device convenience.
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12/07/2026 12:40 pm
Identity proofing is being decoupled from the device wallet layer: The article shows that the legal question is not whether an identity lives inside Apple Wallet, but whether the proofing method itself is recognised. That matters because governance failures often begin when presentation and assurance are treated as the same control. Practitioners should separate credential display from proofing authority in their design.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How do organisations keep identity proofing rules aligned when the law changes over time?
A: Use versioned policy and staged implementation governance. Track legal recognition, technical support, and customer-facing workflow updates separately, so a partial rollout does not become an unexamined permanent assumption in the access journey.
👉 Read our full editorial: iPhone my number card and Apple Wallet reshape identity proofing