ID Photos for 20 Yen and F-35 Parts via Hong Kong

Why This Topic Landed in Japan

With large-scale personal-data leaks piling up, the particular danger of ID documents hit home: unlike a password, a face photo or license number cannot be changed. The F-35 story added a plain question — how did parts end up routed through Hong Kong between allies? — layered with security unease about military technology leaking out. Australia's defense minister described the parts as "not sensitive equipment or components," so treating this as confirmed technology leakage overstates it. The prices and the source behind the ID-image sales cannot be verified from the information presented.

Key Reaction Themes

• Helplessness at leaks no individual can stop (most common, on IDs) — The largest strand was resignation and anger that "if a company gets it stolen, there's no way to protect yourself," while "the government just says 'protect it yourself.'"
• Self-deprecation and fear of downstream harm — Alongside jokes about "my license is worth only 20 yen" came concrete worries about fraudulent loans, bank accounts and phone contracts, and about AI being used to mass-produce fakes.
• "This was deliberate" and logistics criticism (on the F-35) — The dominant take was that this was no mere accident, with disbelief that the shipping ID could be rerouted through Hong Kong at all.
• "They can't use it anyway" (a minority, on the F-35) — Some played down the impact, arguing stolen parts alone cannot be operated.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Japanese ID and license images sold on Chinese-language sites

Reaction to reports that Japanese license images were being traded on a Chinese-language site for about 20 yen each.

Sources: 2ch, 2ch

Comments:

• "The real-world damage from Times Car Share is already starting."
• "Whoever bought the data will use it themselves and resell it to others on top of that."
• "If it's stolen from the company side, there's no way to defend yourself."
• "The Japanese government: 'protect it yourself.'"
• "Twenty yen a piece… is my license really that cheap?"
• "Health cards and My Number get IC-checked at hospitals so they're probably useless, but are financial firms a sieve?"
• "Huh, how are they even getting hold of the licenses?"
• "Looks like AI could churn these out endlessly — with just the image, no one can tell if it's real."
• "The membership records at consumer-loan places, sports gyms, golf courses sound dangerous."
• "The damage is only going to keep growing from here."
• "You can change the last digits of a license by reissuing it, and bill Times for the cost — but the My Number license… that's game over."
• "Is it really from unauthorized access?"
• "After you deal with a vendor by phone on your smartphone, the scam calls go up, don't they."
• "Anyone who expects this country of ours to have decent security is a fool, every one of them."
• "Couldn't you generate license images with AI and sell them endlessly?"

F-35 parts leaked to China via Hong Kong

Reaction to reports that F-35 stealth-canopy parts reached China via Hong Kong while being shipped from Australia to the US.

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

• "Why is it going through Asia to send something from Australia to the US?"
• "The moment you have the whole world sharing the maintenance work, I figured something like this would happen eventually."
• "Why route it near China instead of direct? It's deliberate, lol."
• "No way that's a mistake. Everyone involved is probably being hauled into KGB headquarters right now for a thorough grilling."
• "What surprises me is that the system didn't block rerouting through Hong Kong by package ID."
• "That's a conspicuous route."
• "This is absolutely on purpose, lol."
• "US carrier's mistake, oops."
• "How is the shipper going to take responsibility?"
• "You can't operate it just by stealing a part."
• "America is pretty heavily worked over by China, isn't it."
• "It was intentional. I wonder how much money they were paid."
• "It's technology-sharing between allies, right?"
• "I hope it's a GPS-equipped fake."