The Japanese government is facing a revolt from local authorities over its plans to digitise personal data and assign everyone an ID number.

According to the Washington Post, the government has been surprised by the amount of anger generated by a move to put local authority information on a computer network and assign an 11-digit number to everyone.

At least four local municipalities have defied the government and refused to be a part of the computer network that started earlier this month.

Local protesters dressed as bar codes have taken to the streets, and public opinion polls show huge opposition to the system.

A Ministry of Public Management spokesman told the paper that it did not anticipate the backlash, and maintained that the criticisms were unjustified.

While critics have expressed fears about hackers and other criminals, one of the chief concerns is the misuse of the data by their own government.