Family Registers for Naturalized Citizens
Note: the forms that family registers are printed have been digitized. You may have seen the old style forms, which are on large B4 (257mm × 364mm) pieces of paper, have hard borders and boxes for things like 母 (mother) and 父 (father), and are printed vertically, top-down right-to-left. Japan has been modernizing and computerizing them so the new ones are printed on standard A4 paper which has copy-protection technology in it, horizontally left-to-right top-to-bottom, and have no fixed boxes with the exception of being two columns: the left for the type of information and the right for the contents. We will be talking about the new forms, because frankly, that's all I know: my family register never existed during the "old form" era. As of 2011, over 70% of the family registers in Japan have been digitized.
Furthermore, we will be talking about the 全部事項証明 (unabridged version) of the family register that you can request.
Finally, as there are many variations of "family," even in Japan, so not all cases will be covered here; the Japanese wikipedia entry lists over thirty different possible "sections", including some relating to name changes, adoption, marrying foreigners, etc., that are probably worth discussing. However, I'll stick with what I know from my own experience: being a husband with a Japanese national wife and Japanese national child. Your own register will probably not be identical to what I list here.
This post will cover what you see on a modern 戸籍謄本 (family register official copy) because Japanese 住民票 (residency registration cards), 住民基本台帳カード aka 住基カード (Resident's ID Card) and 運転免許証 (driver's licenses) have no special notations or sections for naturalized citizens.As for Japanese driver's licenses, they will note two things on the back of the card in the 記載欄 (notation/amendment area) if you had one prior to naturalizing and you report your naturalization:
- it will say what your new name is in 漢字 (Japanese sinograms) or 仮名 (Japanese syllabet) only
- it will say that you 本籍 (registered domicile) has changed, without saying from what to what. This is what "proves" you're Japanese from a driver's license point-of-view
In the main section, you will have your 名 (given name), your birth date in the Japanese calendar based on the Emperor era — it will probably be 昭和 (Shōwa era; 1926 to 1989) or 平成 (Heisei era; 1989 to present), unless you're Donald Keene, in which case it will be 大正 (Taishō era)! — not the 西暦 (western Gregorian year system), your fathers' full name transliterated into Japanese, your mothers' full name transliterated into Japanese, and your 続柄 (relation), will will note if your the oldest son/daughter (長男 / 長女) etc. There may also be a 配偶者区分 (spouse division), which will list you as either the 夫 (husband) or 妻 (wife).
There is no section for 性別 (sex); it is implied by the 続柄 (relation) field.
There is also no section for the 読み方 (reading of Japanese sinogram) for your family name or your or anybody else's given names, even though the section exists in the 帰化届 (naturalization form) you completed. This is probably for the sake of searching and sorting in the computer. The 読み方 is not explicitly listed in copies of your 住民票 (resident registration card) or 住基カード (resident registration id), or 運転免許証 (driver's license) either.
Thus, if you picked an unusual Japanese name that is 当て字 — sinograms which correspond to either the semantic or phonetic meaning of a foreign name — be prepared to do what all Japanese who have an unusual/rare name do every time they give their name to someone: explain how to read/write it. Thus problem is not unique to Japanese of course; very few people could pronounce or spell my original last name correctly.There is no section for last/family names, as everybody on one family register has one family name. Also, there are no middle names or multiple given names. For foreign names on the family register, given names are stringed together and put in the 名 (given name) field. Legally speaking, there is no length limit, but most people know in Japan that most names are three or four characters long. Anything longer than seven and you will have problems everywhere filling out forms, both on paper and electronically, which have length "sanity" limits.
For foreign names on the register, there will be a 全角コンマ (full/double width western comma: 『，』) delimiting the family name from the given names. The Japanese 全角中黒
(full/double width middle dot: 『・』) is often used to separate first from last non-kanji name in Japanese as it lacks spaces, and sometimes people will use a 全角 (full/double width) Latin letter for a middle initial or separate their first given name from their middle name with a 全角 (full/double width) "equals" sign (『＝』). Thus, foreign names are transliterated phonetically, and they can end up being comically long on the 戸籍 (family register).
On the family register, though, the only characters permitted are recognized 漢字 (Japanese sinograms), 仮名 (Japanese syllabet), and the 全角コンマ (full/double width western comma) to separate a non-Japanese surname from the rest of the names. The surname must come first, followed by all given names, unabbreviated.
Depending on whether a link can be made to a registered 漢字 (sinograms) legal name, foreign names may actually have 漢字 (sinograms) in them. Even if they do, though, they must still have the 全角コンマ (full/double width western comma) separating the family from the given name.
If the section marked 身分事項 (personal details), there will be the usual items that Japanese have: 出生 (birth) and 婚姻 (marriage). However, there will be one additional section: 帰化 (naturalization).
In this row, there will be about five or six fields, many of which are identical to the other sections (registration date, receiving office, etc.). These are the most common data fields:
- 帰化日 (naturalization date)
This is the actual date the 法務省 (Ministry of Justice) approved your naturalization, which is listed on your 帰化者の身分証明書 (proof of naturalized citizen details) that you received (probably at a much later date) from your local 法務局 (Bureau of Legal Affairs). - 届出日 (registration date)
This is supposed to be within one month of the 帰化日 (naturalization date). - 帰化の際の国籍 (nationality at naturalization)
This will say 無国籍 (stateless) for most naturalized (Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc), as they renounce their other nationalities before getting Japanese citizenship. It exists so there's a written record as to whether a naturalized Japanese fully completed the process — see 国籍選択届 (choice of nationality registration) below — or not. - 従前の氏名 (prior name)
This will be in Japanese, not ローマ字 ("roman characters), in the form "last, given names". This is a little problematic for converting a lot of paperwork, as will be explained below. - 送付を受けた日 (reception via mail date)
This will be present if your registered domicile is not the same place where you did the naturalization registration; a city/ward office forwarded your application to your domicile. - 受理者 (receiving city/ward office)
If the 帰化の際の国籍 (nationality at naturalization) is not 無国籍 (stateless) — which will be the case for those who must renounce after naturalizing (such as the U.S.) as opposed to before (such as the U.K.) — and two years have passed, there should be another section, 国籍選択届 (choice of nationality registration), which happens once you complete that form with proof in the form of a loss/renunciation of nationality certificate from the appropriate government.
Because there is no single official document which has both your Latin passport name and your new name in 漢字 (sinograms), some pedantic organizations may have trouble accepting the 戸籍謄本 (official copy of the family register) as a breeder document that allows you to change the name on pre-existing contracts in Japan if those contracts were made using either the ローマ字 (Latin letter) passport name or a 通称 (official alias) on one's 外国人登録証明書 (Alien Registration Card) or 在留カード (Alien Residence Card).
If you have a spouse which has transferred/merged their family register into yours, there will be an additional section: 配偶者の帰化 (spouse's naturalization). In this section, there will probably be just two rows:
- 入籍日 (date of entering register)
- 入籍理由 (reason for entering register)
Most likely this field will just say something similar to 「夫の帰化届出」 ("husband submitted naturalization registration")
My wife got a kick out of the addition to this section, because this was something new that changed in her own section. She never expected to see the word "naturalized" anywhere near her part of the register.
