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ASIA / PACIFIC Page 20 n THE ASIAN REPORTER Pink diamond sells for record $57.7M at Hong Kong auction By Zen Soo November 7, 2022 Japan steps up push to get public buy-in to digital IDs By Yuri Kageyama AP Business Writer The Associated Press Sotheby’s via AP T OKYO — Japan has stepped up its push to catch up on digitization by telling a reluctant public they have to sign up for digital IDs or possibly lose access to their public health insurance. As the naming implies, the initiative is about assigning numbers to people, similar to Social Security numbers in the U.S. Many Japanese worry the information might be misused or that their personal informa- tion might be stolen. Some view the My Number effort as a violation of their right to privacy. So the system that kicked off in 2016 has never fully caught on. Fax machines are still com- monplace, and many Japanese conduct much of their business in person, with cash. Some bureaucratic procedures can be done online, but many Japanese offices still require “inkan,” or seals for stamping, for identification, and insist on people bringing paper forms to offices. Now the government is ask- ing people to apply for plastic My Number cards equipped with microchips and photos, to be linked to driver licenses and the public health insur- ance plans. Health insurance cards now in use, which lack photos, will be discontinued in Kyodo News via AP H ONG KONG — A pink diamond has sold for $57.7 million in Hong Kong, setting a world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction. The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star, auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, fetched close to $5.2 million per carat, exceeding the previous record of $4 million for a blue diamond sold in 2015. The buyer was a private collector in the United States, Sotheby’s said. The Williamson Pink Star draws its name from two legendary pink diamonds. The first is the 23.60-carat Williamson Pink Diamond presented to the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift in 1947, while the second is the 59.60-carat Pink Star that sold for a record $71.2 million at auction in 2017. The Williamson Pink Star, the second-largest pink diamond to appear at auction, and Queen Elizabeth’s diamond both came from the Williamson mine in Tanzania. The mine is famous for pink diamonds, which are among the rarest and most valuable of the colored diamonds. “This is an astounding result, proving the resilience of top diamonds in a shaky economy,” said Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds. “Hard assets such as world-class dia- monds have a history of performing well even in times of instability,” he said. “Some of the world’s highest quality diamonds have seen prices double over the last 10 years.” late 2024. People will be required to use My Number cards instead. That has drawn a backlash, with an online petition demanding a continuation of the current health cards drawing more than 100,000 signatures in a few days. Opponents of the change say the current system has been working for decades and going digital would require extra work at a time when the pandemic is still straining the medical system. But the reluctance to go digi- tal extends beyond the health- care system. After numerous scandals over leaks and other mistakes, many Japanese distrust the government’s handling of data. They are also wary about government overreach, partly a legacy of authoritarian regimes before and during World War II. Saeko Fujimori, who works in the music copyright business, said she’s supposed to get My Number information from the people she deals with, but many balk at giving it out. And no one is all that surprised she has trouble getting that information, given how unpopular it is. “There is a microchip in it, and that means there could be fraud,” said Fujimori, who has a My Number but doesn’t intend to get the new card. “If a machine is reading all the information, that can lead to mistakes in the medical sector, too.” “If this was coming from a trustworthy leadership and the economy was thriving, maybe we would think about it, but not now,” Fujimori said. Something drastic may have to happen for people to accept such changes, just as it took a devastating defeat in World War II for Japan to transform itself into an economic powerhouse, said Hidenori Watanave, a professor at the University of Tokyo. “There’s resistance playing out everywhere,” he said. Japanese traditionally take pride in meticulous, handcraft- quality workmanship and many also devote themselves to carefully keeping track of documents and neatly filing them away. “There are too many people worried their jobs are going to disappear. These people see di- gitization as a negation of their past work,” said Watanave, who spells his last name with a “v” instead of the usual “b.” The process of getting an existing My Number digitized is time consuming and very analog, it turns out. One must fill out and mail back forms sent by mail. The initial Sep- tember deadline was extended, but only about half of the Japanese population have a My Number, according to the government. “They keep failing in anything digital and we have no memories of successful digital transformation by the government,” said Nobi Hayashi, a consultant and technology expert. Hayashi cited as a recent example Cocoa, the govern- ment’s tracing app for COVID- 19, which proved unpopular and often ineffectual. He says the digital promotion effort Continued on page 16 As t he Year Winds Dow n… The weather cools. The kids return to school. Some of us even start planning for the upcoming holiday season. Overall, the pace of life can seem to slow in autumn, and that might mean more time staying indoors and turning to devices for entertainment . For some people, that could mean that a gambling habit that receded with the distractions of summer will come back even stronger. But there’s good news; you don’t have to let gambling dominate your life. Fr ee Hel p is Avail abl e If you have a gambling habit that has grown beyond your control, help is available. Through the Oregon Problem Gambling Resource (OPGR), gamblers and those who love them can get support from trained addiction counselors, often right from home. Treatment is effective. People are ready and waiting to provide better mechanisms to cope and to heal. And, best of all, it’s free. All it takes is a phone call, a text , or an online chat to get started. Reach out . Let this season be your season for change. Over coming Pr obl em Gambl ing