Yes, Prime Minister of Japan

"The Japanese have their own traditions! They firmly oppose spouses using different surnames!"

Over there, young, overweight men are protesting that their aesthetic sense has been defined:

"This is aesthetics! This is culture!"

At first, both sides thought the other's slogan was acceptable.

Anime fans and traditional right-wingers, who usually look down on each other, have somehow ended up in the same group.

Their shouts rose and fell in waves:

"Japan has been invaded to the core by China!"

"This is a despicable cultural invasion of authentic Japanese anime culture by the Chinese! We must protect our pure anime culture!"

That's not entirely wrong. It's true that the new aesthetic culture of anime and manga, which originated in Japan, was adopted and incorporated into China's culture during its development, thus gaining the right to redefine anime and manga.

However, using terms like "culture" and "aggression" to describe this is making a mountain out of a molehill. China, both officially and unofficially, has not formally defined the concept of "anime/manga culture," while South Korea and Japan are typical examples of secondary civilizations that have systematically defined and encroached upon their own culture.

As the protests continued, the group discovered they had infiltrated other groups.

"When a nation is about to perish, ship girls will be everywhere!"

"Get out of here, you stinky anime fanatics."

"Boycotting personal ID cards and couples using different surnames—this is Japan being influenced by Chinese culture!"

"Nantong, get out of here!"

For several hours, thousands of people made a great commotion at the T-junction outside the Cabinet Office, but they didn't dare to utter a single swear word or engage in any violent behavior. They could only sit down very politely and distribute the lunch and milk tea provided by the organizers.

Then, the protesters started arguing over lunch and drinks:

"Baka! Why did you post Mixue Ice Cream? Don't you know that's a Chinese milk tea chain?"

"The budget is limited, so Mixue is the cheapest... If all else fails, we'll just have to drink convenience store hot pot water and bottled coffee. If you want to support domestic products, go ahead, I support Mixue and Ice Cream."

Anyway, Mixue Ice Cream is good, Mixue Ice Cream is wonderful, whoever likes going to the convenience store can go.

What should we have for lunch?

"Chinese rice and Chinese stir-fried dishes."

"Why China again?"

"Do you want to eat cold rice balls from a convenience store?! If you don't like it, then get lost. I finally managed to book a meal with a Chinese food delivery company, but they don't even know who we are. If they had known, they wouldn't have made it for us."

The chaotic and noisy procession dispersed in the afternoon.

Clearly, an event of this scale must be organized by someone behind the scenes.

And there is more than one organizer.

Some sent Mixue Ice Cream, some sent anime-themed merchandise, and some sent stamps or something similar.

When the meeting ended, Li Xinghe was still struggling with his thoughts in the Cabinet Office in the distance.

Prime Minister is so annoying:

"Why... can't I catch anything? Is my bait not good enough?"

Many of the organizers of the demonstrations were people sent by Li Xinghe, but they hadn't caught any big fish; only the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled came to protest. As soon as the Cabinet Special Forces were deployed, they scattered and fled. Most of them were just there to freeload lunch and milk tea.

Takajo Satsuki offered a sharp critique from the sidelines:

"I think it's purely because they don't want to die."

"Yeah, yeah."

Ayako Aso echoed.

Li Xinghe is troubled:

"So how exactly should we explain the importance of this policy to the public?"

If they can't catch the big fish to hunt, their political influence is insufficient.

Lu Yuchi Hua Yingmei's long, slender legs suddenly made a suggestion:

"How about a fireside chat broadcast nationwide?"

"That's about right."

After some thought, the matter was settled.

……

11 month 21 day.

With Halloween and Christmas, holidays that Japanese people love to celebrate, fast approaching, the new policy, which has been promoted for more than two weeks, is finally about to begin.

The first event was a dialogue between the Prime Minister and the people, broadcast nationwide on a civilian television station.

All national and local television stations, and all online live streaming platforms, must give it the highest priority in streaming.

Therefore, at 8 p.m. on this day, when most Japanese people were sitting at home in front of their TVs, computers, or playing on their phones, they all saw Japan's youngest leadership team appear on the screen.

Li Xinghe, Asou Ayako, and Shika Michika Yingmei, three young people whose appearance alone is pleasing to the eye, sat in front of the live broadcast booth.

Next, Utada Hikaru came to the front of the stage to sing.

After a series of folk songs, Li Xinghe delivered a public address:

"The policy of requiring spouses to have different surnames, the unique national ID, the order to change surnames, and the Sally Sunshine Credit Loan program currently being implemented in Japan are four policies that must be implemented together."

Li Xinghe held up a small wooden sign to demonstrate the process:

"First of all, the slow progress of our national ID system has led to numerous absurd and foolish problems, making identity verification difficult. The underground grey lending industry controlled by the Yakuza is now harming the people, and I have no choice but to take control. However, before that, we must provide alternatives for the people, which is why there is the Sunshine Credit Loan. To promote electronic lending, we first need to identify unique personal information. But in the past, Japan's methods for identifying information... were actually resident registration certificates and unique email addresses!"

Yes, this foolish personal address email address is one of the main culprits behind the failure to implement many identity-related policies in Japan. Since society has already become accustomed to tracing individuals based on their personal addresses and email addresses, various social activities can proceed simply by focusing on those addresses.

You need an address to get a job, you need an address to apply for a loan, you even need an address to borrow money from loan sharks at exorbitant interest rates. And the most important part of that address is that unique email address. Mei, have you thought about me, Lin, are you here...?

This email address is like the property title certificate for a house; having it means you have officially recognized legal status. Others can then send you mail.

This has instilled a fixed mindset in Japanese bureaucrats of the old era, even leading them to require citizens to provide their registration address when promoting the National ID. This creates a paradox: registering for a National ID requires a home address and email address, but the National ID was created precisely to replace this inefficient address and email address system!

But in the internet age, you can't exactly take a picture of your house and register it in an identity verification system, can you?

Ayako Aso, standing nearby, continued her argument:

"Therefore, in order to eliminate the outdated registration method of using a unique email address for each residence, we promoted the national identity card registration, granting each citizen a unique ID. However, some minor problems arose during the registration process, namely that citizens' names were extremely chaotic. There were Chinese characters, kana, and issues with pronunciation confusion and random naming. Therefore, we decided to push forward the de-clan and surname order in one fell swoop, hoping that everyone would choose a single surname and a given name with 1-3 Chinese characters, so as to standardize the national information data entry in the name system."

As Li Xinghe and others explained in detail, it turned out that this series of policies were actually connected.

Because many local gangs have been dismantled, it is necessary to provide the public with alternative products for microfinance services; in order to provide the public with microfinance services (Sally Sunshine Loan), it is necessary to digitize personal identification ID cards; in order to digitize personal IDs, it is necessary to standardize the entry of people's names; in order to standardize the entry of names, it is necessary to promote the elimination of clan names and the simplification of people's names.

At this point, there were many voices of 'understanding' in the comments section.

But there were even more protesters.

Lu Yuchi, Hua Yingmei, read through various rumors, clapped her hands, and said:

"Hi, I've seen some people say this is pre-recorded, and others say this is just sophistry. So we'll randomly select some people to come up on the microphone and share your opinions."

Not only ordinary citizens, but also members of parliament, public representatives, and town service groups, many people are puzzled by such a major reform.

So of course it couldn't have been randomly selected.

A traditional conservative lawmaker was allowed to access the channel to protest:

"Even if everything you said before is correct—that you want to abolish personal addresses and email addresses, promote digital national IDs, and provide microcredit services for the public—why then do you still want to legislate to abolish the practice of married couples sharing the same surname?! Don't you know this is a long-standing traditional culture in Japan?"

Li Xinghe laughed heartily:

"First of all, let me remind you that this traditional culture has only existed for 130 years. That's even later than Japan's modern history. If we're talking about long-standing traditional culture, isn't it true that husbands and wives should use different surnames? I don't need to teach you about ancient Japanese history, do I? Or have you been listening to populist YouTubers spouting nonsense in your history classes?"

The issue of couples having different surnames in Japan, like the issue of abortion rights in the United States, is a politically fabricated issue, purely the work of right-wing idiots.

He then explained:

"The reason we require couples to use different surnames is to ensure that a person's personal identification ID remains unchanged throughout their life. This is to prevent citizens from facing the predicament of losing control of their social security and electronic accounts after marriage or divorce due to changing their surname!"

That was a game-winning shot!

Personal ID cards are linked to driver's licenses and social security. If someone has to change their surname because they get married, wouldn't that invalidate their personal ID?

That's why we promote the practice of couples using different surnames for life, so that people can have their names remain unchanged.

Li Xinghe is the first politician on the Japanese archipelago to explain from an economic perspective why it is necessary to promote the use of different surnames for married couples and to foster equality based on surnames.

Moreover, it is so smooth and reasonable, and it bypasses the stupid and lengthy debate about 'traditional culture'.

The congressman, left speechless by the questioning, resorted to tantrums and throwing a tantrum.

"What about traditional culture?"

"We allow people to change their Miao name after marriage. This is because the Miao name has been removed from personal ID cards. Women will retain their original surnames. Changing the Miao name is up to the individual's wishes."

Li Xinghe also allows traditional Japanese people to continue their 130-year-old bullshit tradition.

This also allows Japanese people to remove their old surnames (myoji) from their personal ID cards, reflecting a new direction of emphasizing surnames and downplaying myoji.

If you Japanese want to stick to tradition, fine, our new government will only recognize the new surname + given name. You can do whatever you want with the family name.

"Huh? You can do that? This...this can't be..."

The national representative who was connected to the live stream was kicked off the channel to prevent him from making any outrageous remarks.

The live stream has now moved directly to the process of quickly applying for a personal ID.

The technicians presented Utada Hikaru with a regular iPhone and personally taught her how to use it.

"Registration is very simple when you use the front-facing camera of Sally Pay."

Utada Koichi scanned her face, and after a few seconds of swiping, her electronic ID card appeared on her phone.

"Huh? That's it? As for the surname... I'll choose Yu?"

Utada Hikaru became Utada Hikaru.

The system has already prepared a personal data table in advance, which is divided into three parts: 'surname - Miao name - given name'.

The surname "miao" refers to common pseudonyms like "Yamamoto," "Tanaka," and "Sato." This will no longer be important.

The applicant's real surname cannot be filled in by the applicant; they must choose one from a pre-defined list of single-character surnames such as '山', '田', '藤', '原', '苏', '武', '林', '井', and '木'. Only a few compound surnames, such as '藤原' and '苏我', are available for selection. Li Xinghe compiled a list of 1000 Japanese surnames, which includes 2000 designated common surnames. Special circumstances allow for applications.

Most people's surnames can be reduced to a single character, such as Sato → Sa or Fuji, Suzuki → Ki, Takahashi → Taka or Qiao, Tanaka → Ta, Ito → I, and so on. Most Japanese surnames can be reduced to a single character. As for those more unusual and less common surnames, you can only find similar surnames yourself.

Currently, the surname, hereditary name, and given name are used together. In the future, the hereditary name will be shortened, and the structure will be changed to surname and given name. This will allow the "returning to surnames" order to be successfully implemented, directly reversing the Japanese surname culture.

The technicians guided her:

"Just click to verify."

"Huh? That's easy."

The operating logic is that Sally Pay's backend accesses the user's bank card account and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data, queries the account holder's social security information, and after scanning and confirming that the person matches the driver's license or social security certificate, it directly generates a unique national ID in the mobile phone's backend, which serves as an electronic ID card.

If a Japanese internet company were to do this kind of business, it would most likely collapse on the spot, its database would be breached, and it would be utterly humiliating.

Fortunately, Li Xinghe obtained support from Alipay's technical department by using facial recognition.

Alipay has become quite adept at this system: facial scanning, accessing social security, driver's license, and bank information, saturating servers to quickly identify and resolve issues during the registration process—this has been secretly tested for a month. This process can cover at least 70% of the Japanese population, encompassing the vast majority of employed individuals.

A successful live broadcast of a public forum allowed the Japanese to witness Lee Sung-ha's governing abilities.

With a simple facial scan using a mobile phone, one can bypass the incompetent local government and directly apply for a national ID. This is practically godlike efficiency!

In fact, for most ordinary people, Li Xinghe's large-scale comprehensive policy reforms are all good directions that benefit their lives.

Finally, we can get around that incredibly stupid resident ticket and personal address/email!

In the past, Japanese people often encountered a vicious cycle of "no fixed address" → "unable to find a job" → "getting poorer by doing odd jobs", eventually leading them to seek high-interest loans from yakuza, thus becoming completely untrustworthy, exploited by yakuza until death, and forced to commit suicide after defrauding death insurance.

Now, with the elimination of physical addresses and email addresses, the push for a national ID, and Sally's microfinance support, at least the poor don't have to be driven to their deaths by gangsters.

People flocked to download Sally Pay and began registering.

Sally Group, along with major Japanese companies, has begun requiring identity ID registration. If you want to use Sally's services—ordering takeout, booking packages, finding ride-hailing services, arranging moving services, renting apartments, buying secondhand goods online, or even applying for government services on your mobile phone—you'll need to obtain your national identity card.

After all, it can't be impossible to bind users, right?

Currently, it's just a social service. But once it's scaled up, various mandatory social activities, such as school registration, corporate social security, and security certification, will also require personal ID cards. You won't be able to avoid applying for one.

If none of the above are needed, then it means that these are basically elderly people in their seventies or eighties. In that case, it's fine for them to go to the ward office to register for no internet access, since the old government hasn't been dissolved and is still providing services for them.

If they continue their encirclement step by step, the Japanese will eventually have to use their surnames.