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Comment by HarHarVeryFunny | Hacker News Reader

> People can obtain digital addresses by registering with Japan Post's Yu ID membership service. Their digital addresses will not change even if their physical addresses change.

OK, so your social security number is your "digital address", and the post office has a database of everyone's current address.

I'm not sure what problem this solves. Shaves seconds off the time it takes you to write an address? Better hope they've got error correction built in, since normal addresses are fairly "fault tolerant" in terms of still being deliverable.

If you move you still need to notify them, although perhaps in Japan big brother already knows you've moved.

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> Shaves seconds off the time it takes you to write an address?

More like minutes. Address input in Japan is a colossal pain in the ass. You have some sites that only allow half-width characters (e.g., ｷﾀ), some that only allow full width (キタ), some that require you to write your address twice and once in romaji, which can be half width (kita) or full width (ｋｉｔａ), some require you to write it in hiragana instead, sometimes numbers need to be full width(123 vs １２３), sometimes addresses have random unicode symbols like ・or Ⅲ (yes, Roman numerals are common in addresses) or ⑧ which may or may not be recognized, and more. There's no standardization in addresses at all and no street names, so every building gets some bizarre-ass name unique to it and the names sound like the title of a JRPG. You might even get stuff like 〜ＴＨＥﾋﾞｯｸﾞPALACEモナコ：Dréam Ⅱ〜

And the fun thing: every site has its own input standards, and no, they don't tell you what the error was. Most simply say "You can't submit. There's something wrong on this page." Some let you hit the send button, fail, and make you input everything all over again.

Having a code to input an address saves users loads of time and stress, assuming web developers implement it.

It often doesn't compute for people when I tell them that even Japanese people can't read Japanese. Once you've experienced crap like this it really makes you appreciate it on a deeper level. Addresses and place names in general are a near unusable cluster fuck that somehow everyone just manages to put up with.

> I'm not sure what problem this solves

Have you moved addresses before? It is a giant pain to track down all the services which send you letter mail and change your address with them. With an extra layer of indirection you only need to update your address in one place when you move. Think of it like DNS for physical addresses.

> If you move you still need to notify them, although perhaps in Japan big brother already knows you've moved.

When we move, we need to register our address change at the city hall. In terms of Big Brother, that's a given.

The problem is that we also need to change all bank, bills, etc. too. So this replaces the need for mail forwarding, for example.

> Shaves seconds off the time it takes you to write an address?

Entering Japanese addresses on Japanese websites can often be a PITA, with weird requirements for where to split the address sections, fullwidth vs halfwidth, spacing, and even what type of dash you use (ー vs －). I don't think I've ever had Safari's auto-fill be able to do it successfully.

>OK, so your social security number is your "digital address", and the post office has a database of everyone's current address.'

No, not really, Yu-ID is not the same as the My-ID (akin to social security number). So you wont have to reveal your social security to your taxi driver etc. if that was what you worried about.

>If you move you still need to notify them, although perhaps in Japan big brother already knows you've moved.

Yes you would have to change the physical address for your Yu-ID, but you don't need to tell all your acquaintances to update their greeting-card address list ( they can still send to the same Yu-ID)

Another case might be that you are temporarily living at a 'summer-residence' , or that work takes you to a new locations for months at the time.

>So you wont have to reveal your social security to your taxi driver etc. if that was what you worried about.

Yea, but now this taxi driver will forever know where I live. Thanks, but no thanks.

So will he if you give him your ordinary address? It's good to be careful of these things, but I think you are being a little bit paranoid.

Reminds me of that old joke: Drunk man hails a cab, gets in.

"Where to?" asks the driver.

"Home!" says the man.

"Well, where do you live?"

"None of your business!"

> Shaves seconds off the time it takes you to write an address?

Presumably it'd be pretty nice if you lost touch with someone.

Also pretty convenient for sending harassing mail to people who'd rather you didn't.

It solves an issue of Japanese addressing system being a total mess. There is basically a wild wild west when it comes to the address part on most of the ecommerce sites in Japan: some offer address auto-complete via zip code, some don't; some require a building name, some don't; and the address itself may be written down in different ways. Having a source of truth in a form of a provider which has vested interest in keeping the address uniformly correct on entry is god sent here.

DNS for IRL addresses. If you move, you only need to change the address in one place and all your mail will follow you.

But now you only need to notify the post office, rather than every company who sends you physical mail.

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