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translated by copy/pasting into DeepL, original article: https://shueisha.online/culture/52899

Title: Names and addresses will be made public to the whole world! The Invoice System Will Reveal the Real Names of Manga Artists" is True!
Intro: The invoice system, which will be introduced on October 1, 2023, will cause creators (VTubers, YouTubers, cartoonists, writers, artists, actors, etc.) who use pen names or stage names to have their "real names revealed. The "problem of having one's real name exposed" is causing a great deal of controversy. In the midst of all this, it was discovered that the personal information of registered businesses is already publicly available on the IRS website. Freelance writer Jun Inukai reports on the shocking mechanism of "real name exposure.

---------------------------------------- PAGE 1 - Name must be published on the IRS website ----------------------------------------

The invoice system will be introduced on October 1, 2023. As we have already mentioned, this is a system that will do a hundred harms and not a single good, as the general public will suffer tremendous disadvantages, such as reduced revenues due to substantial tax increases, lost transaction opportunities, and increased wasteful paperwork.

*For more information on the problems with the invoice system, see the "STOP! Invoice" website.

Furthermore, this invoice system is designed in such a way that personal information, including the real names of creators (VTubers, YouTubers, manga artists, writers, artists, actors, voice actors, etc.) who use pen names or stage names, is made public by the IRS worldwide on its website, allowing anyone to download all the information, and also allowing commercial use This is an unbelievable system. What on earth is going on?

The mechanism by which invoices can reveal a cartoonist's real name was outlined in an article I published in June, "Is it true that the introduction of the invoice system will reveal the cartoonist's real name? I explained the mechanism of how invoices reveal the real names of cartoonists in more detail.

First, for sole proprietors who are not corporations, the "name" (i.e., the so-called "real name" registered in the family register) applied for when registering as an invoice (qualified invoice) issuing business operator must be disclosed on the National Tax Agency website (official name: qualified invoice issuing business operator public website) along with the "registration number" and "registration date The "name" and "address of office" are required to be disclosed on the website of the IRS. The disclosure of the "trade name" and "office address" is also optional, but the disclosure of these items does not exempt the disclosure of the required "name".

*For the items to be disclosed and the classification of mandatory and optional, please refer to the IRS Q&A "Q20: In what manner will the information on qualified billing entities be disclosed? (Follow the description in "Q20: How should information on qualified billing entities be disclosed?

---------------------------------------- PAGE 2 - Shocking revelations from all the downloads. ----------------------------------------

In fact, the personal information of registered businesses is already available on the IRS website (official name: Qualified Billing Business Publication Website). And the personal information can be accessed by anyone in the world, downloaded in its entirety, and even used for commercial purposes, which is a shocking specification.

The method is remarkably simple. On the "Download All Data" page of the IRS website, simply click on the zip with the classification "individual" (= refers to sole proprietors) and download.

I was astonished when I opened the csv file that I downloaded. The csv file contained 195,935 personal information items (the number of registered sole proprietors as of the end of August 2022), all of which were visible. All of the names, which are required fields, were open to the public.

In addition, 17,992 (9.2% of the total) of the optional items of "office location" and 38,267 (19.5%) of the optional items of "trade name" were publicly available. The impact of this sloppy personal information management cannot be conveyed without actual experience, so we encourage those interested to try the above procedure.

As you can see, the real names of sole proprietors are disclosed on the IRS website without any exceptions. However, this alone may lead you to think, "Isn't my name, registration number, and date of registration published as a set, and not linked to my stage name or pen name, so my real name is not revealed?" You may be thinking, "But, my name, registration number, and date of registration will only be made public as a set. Let me explain this in more detail.

-------------------- PAGE 3 - There were already seven "Masaru Sato" and six "Kazuhiro Suzuki" registered! --------------------

Let us consider what exactly happens when a cartoonist working under a pen name (registered as an invoice issuing business) issues an invoice (qualified invoice) to a publishing company.

Before the publisher proceeds with tax processing (i.e., deducting the remuneration paid to the cartoonist from the consumption tax paid by the publisher), the publisher needs to confirm that the registration number (T + 13 digits) on the received invoice is that of the cartoonist and that the registration number is valid.

Therefore, we use the registration number as a search key on the National Tax Agency website (official name: Qualified Invoice Issuing Business Publication Website), where information on invoice issuing business operators is publicly available.

However, unless the accountant who would be performing this task knows the cartoonist's real name, he/she cannot determine whether the registration number is that of the person himself/herself by looking at the search results screen.

Because, as you can see from the above search result screen shown in the example of how to use the IRS website, the screen only shows that the real name of the person corresponding to the registration number "T3123456789123" is "Taro Kunitax" and that the registration date is "October 1, 2023. The reason is that the screen does not tell us the real name of the person whose registration number corresponds to

Even if the accountant knew the person's real name, it would be impossible to determine whether it was his/her own registration number, since it is assumed that there are multiple registrants with the same name, unless the person has a very unusual first or last name.

In fact, when the author checked 195,935 personal information of sole proprietors registered with invoice issuing businesses as of the end of August 2022, a large number of the same name was immediately confirmed. For reference, a small number of examples are presented below, in order of the number of duplicates.　


7 cases: Masaru Sato
6 cases: Kazuhiro Suzuki
4 cases: Kenji Ito, Tetsuo Kobayashi
3 cases: Kazuo Takahashi, Kazuko Tanaka, Akihiko Maeda
2 cases: Kazuyuki Arai, Yasuyuki Ishii, Masaaki Okada, Shingo Goto, Takashi Sugawara, Satoshi Sugiyama, Koji Taniguchi, Satoru Watanabe, Shiro Wakabayashi

It was expected that surnames with a particularly large number of people in Japan (Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka, Ito, etc.) would tend to overlap, but it should be noted that even surnames (Watanabe, Wakabayashi) and first names (Satoru, Kazuyuki), which do not seem to have that many people, already have the same names.

The total number of sole proprietors in Japan is approximately 1.86 million (survey by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, 2016). In other words, only about 10% of them are currently registered. Considering the system in which failure to register for invoicing will effectively exclude them from the market, it is expected that many more sole proprietors will register one after another in the future.

If the number of registrants expands up to 10 times in the future, we can expect that the same surname and name will surely appear, unless it is a very rare combination of surname and name. This brings into relief the true meaning of "trade name" and "office address," which were introduced earlier as "optional" items that can be disclosed.

---------------------------------------- PAGE 4 - What "voluntary" really means ----------------------------------------

What happens when multiple persons with the same name are registered on the IRS website and it is no longer possible to determine whether the registration number is that of the cartoonist him/herself?　Unless the cartoonist is a big-name cartoonist that everyone knows, the publisher will probably be forced to ask the cartoonist to register an additional "trade name" (i.e., stage name or pen name) in order to reduce paperwork.

The registration number, name, and trade name will then be published on the IRS website as a set, and the accountant can determine that the registration number on the invoice received is definitely that of the cartoonist himself/herself.

*It is common for sole proprietors who work under a stage name or pen name to use their stage name or pen name as their trade name.

Considering the cartoonist's position of wanting to avoid worsening relations with the publisher and the inconvenience of paperwork, he or she will have no choice but to accede to the publisher's request. If one really wants to avoid the publication of an additional "trade name," there is also the option of publishing the "office address," but in the case of sole proprietorships, the home often doubles as the office, and this could lead to the address being revealed.

In other words, this problem poses three choices for all creators (VTubers, YouTubers, writers, artists, actors, voice actors, etc.) who use pseudonyms or stage names.

(1) Refuse the additional disclosure of "trade name" and "office location" in preparation for a worsening of relations with business partners → High possibility of suffering disadvantages such as suspension or reduction of transactions

(2) Additional disclosure of "trade name" → Since the name and trade name are disclosed as a set on the IRS website, there is a very high possibility that the real name will be revealed (if the trade name includes a stage name or pen name, anyone can easily link the trade name to the real name by searching with the stage name or pen name).

(3) Disclose the "office address" additionally → If the "registration number" and "name" are leaked for some reason, the office address will be exposed as well. (If the address is also the home address, the address will be exposed.

For a detailed explanation of the issue of real names being exposed (the opinion of a lawyer and a tax accountant), please refer to the "Note: [Ask a Lawyer & a Tax Accountant] Is Your Real Name Exposed by the Invoice System? Furthermore, is it true that personal information can be downloaded in bulk and used for commercial purposes? See also

Furthermore, this issue could be fatal enough for sole proprietors who do not use stage names or pseudonyms to consider closing their businesses. For example, a case in which a person is making a living as a sole proprietor after fleeing from a family member, former partner, stalker, etc.

In this case, the other party knows the sole proprietor's real name from the beginning, and a search on the IRS website using the real name will surely result in a hit. In such a case, if the trade name and office address are also disclosed as a set, it would give a hint of the nature of the business and its whereabouts, which could threaten the livelihood of the business owner.

---------------------------------------- PAGE 5 - Supporters flock to J-League players' homes ----------------------------------------

In this connection, for example, in the case of J-League players, address revelation is expected to cause serious damage.

First of all, the basic premise is that the majority of J-League personnel (players, managers, staff, etc.) are sole proprietors and are therefore party to the invoice issue. In addition, the majority of young players and J2 and J3 players have annual incomes of less than 10 million yen, so they are expected to lose about 10% (equivalent to consumption tax) of their annual income due to the substantial tax increase caused by invoices.

Furthermore, given that it is not common for active J-League players to register their "business name," it is expected that clubs will request additional disclosure of the "office location" to identify the "registration number" of the player.

With the exception of a handful of well-known players, they do not have private offices, etc., so they are forced to register their home addresses instead. In other words, it is highly likely that "name" and "office address" (= home address) will be disclosed as a set. If this were to happen, the following damage could be expected even if only a rough idea is given.

After making a mistake in a match, some enthusiastic supporters will come to your home.
Your house is more likely to be targeted by burglars and robbers during matches and trips to the country.
In the case of popular players such as national team players, some enthusiastic supporters and stalkers will follow them to their homes.

As an example, the J-League players are the most common example of how the invoice system threatens not only the loss of income but also the security of their lives.

In the first place, why is the invoice system designed to lead to the exposure of a sole proprietor's real name and address? The answer is obvious: "Because it prioritizes the convenience of large corporations over the privacy of individuals. This fact was revealed on August 8, 2022, when the Ministry of Finance gave a shocking answer. The "true reason" for introducing the invoice system even if the "real name" is inevitable will be introduced in detail.