Choosing your "Registered Domicile" aka "Honseki"
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| Your domicile can be anywhere in Japan |
It's very similar to choosing one's new name as a Japanese. Unlike most natural born Japanese, who have their name and domicile chosen for them by their parents, naturalized Japanese get to choose it themselves. Like names, there are guidelines as to what is a good choice and what isn't, and naturalized Japanese follow the same rules that natural born Japanese follow. Like family names in Japan, your spouse and dependents must all have the same one.
Your choice affects your driver's license (inside the IC chip), your family register (戸籍), and your Japanese passport (パスポート／旅券).
Legally, the choice you make affects your day to day life much less than your choice of name: no forms ask for it, and although it may come up, one's choice of domicile never comes up in business conversation, and only rarely comes up in personal conversation. While not trivial to change, you can change it through the courts in the future if you don't like it.
Does it have any connection to where you live?
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| Ｍ★Ａ★Ｓ★Ｈ |
Also note that the Registered Domicile may not unambiguously specify where you and your family alone lives: the detail level goes down to a particular dwelling / plot of land. You and your family on your family register may be the only people on a plot of land (if the address ends in 番地 — meaning 住所表記). On the other hand, the domicile address may point to a general area with a building or set of building in which hundreds, or even thousands, of people reside (if the domicile address ends in just 番 — meaning 住居表記). And there is also the case of nobody, including yourself, actually living at that address! (more details below)
Unlike the PRC (but similar to ROC), one's residency or domicile can be easily changed with the local authorities and the domicile and/or register does not serve as a tool to limit a resident's movements within Japan.
Expressing your "Roots" or "Origin" in Japan
![[family] tree with roots](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqiI28_JffZQEqTj_ZhYX2tLECyg010JPyoiSID2iUEufyRPB4erEOrtl16yxua8nGckKA3GW_9-nlCTASiJ6NL9OhYZo_H34D4kSuCqr_AAGeh5q4B9rFZS_V8eWcexJ3SB-7gXn1SBd7/s200/green-304706_1280.png) |
| Your new roots in Japan will grow & strengthen over time |
For those who are married, the choice is a little more complicated like family names. Japan, being a society that legally stresses family unity over individuality, requires that spouses and the children who are all on the same family register have the same 本籍 (Registered Domicile) in addition to having the same family name.
Where and How I Decided my "Japanese Roots" Are
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| My first home: public housing, 11th floor |
It was in this city that I learned Japanese, settled into Japanese life, met the person which would become my spouse for decades, and started my career.
To this day, time spent with "the family" (my in-laws) on holiday (ex. New Year's) is spent in Osaka.
If it wasn't for my experiences there, the impression it made on me, and the opportunities I found there regarding career and family, I'm pretty sure I would have never taken Japanese nationality.
Thus, I decided the my Japanese passport should say "OSAKA" for the Registered Domicile.
I chose the same location as my wife within Osaka for convenience, so there was absolutely no change on her part.
Interesting Places Where Your Registered Domicile Can Be
As a general rule of thumb: if the place has an official Japanese postal address with a postal code (郵便番号) — a three (old) or three+four (new) digit number usually prefixed with the JP symbol: 『〒』 — then a Japanese national can choose it as a Registered Domicile (本籍).Note that the reverse is not true: Most Japanese postal addresses are not valid Registered Domiciles (本籍), because the domiciles do not specify individual buildings or homes; the "resolution" only extends to the plot or land or block that one or more homes or buildings may be on.
You do not have to choose a place that has no other people. Likewise, you can choose a place that already has people in it. You can even choose a place where it's not possible to live there as a resident due to its location or what is already there. Some examples include:
- uninhabited and/or uninhabitable islands
- land areas that civilians are not normally permitted to visit or enter:
- Hashima Island (端島) aka Battleship Island (軍艦島)
- Battleship Island was a sea-based coal mining artificial city constructed by Mitsubishi in the early twentieth century and completely abandoned in the early seventies. Thanks to concrete apartment buildings, the tiny island had an incredible amount of people living on it, at one time earning the notorious distinction of being the most densely populated area on Earth (over 5,200 people packed into just 0.06km² of space, which included a graveyard, school, shrine, park, and a medical facility). It is not populated now, and is now known as a tourist site for its ruins (廃墟) of its concrete buildings and sea walls. The area was mapped by Google Street View and was the lair for a James Bond villain in the movie "Skyfall".
Marcus Island (南鳥島)
Part of Japan's EEZ - Literally translating the Japanese, "South Bird Island" is a Japanese coral atoll. It is only 1km² and has no permanent population, but it does have a runway and a coast guard station, which both Japan and the U.S. use. Geographically, it is the east most island of all of Japan, and it's the only part of Japanese territory on the Pacific tectonic plate.
- Iwojima (硫黄島)
- Iwojima is the site of the famous, brutal, and bloody Pacific War battle between the United States and the Imperial Army. The subject of numerous movies (and famous photographs and memorials), you can't freely visit the island without permission (usually granted to veterans during memorial events), but you can set your domicile to the "island of sulfur", which is what the island is named after.
- land areas currently occupied by foreign countries or are in dispute
- public facilities or places that are not residential:
- airports
- KIX (関西国際空港)
- Kansai's airport would be a neat place to have a registered domicile if only because the airport is constructed entirely on reclaimed land in the Osaka Bay (大阪湾); the area is entirely on artificial land. It was constructed there to allow for 24 hour operation without disturbing residences. In other words, your domicile can be on 100% artificial land in a bay.
- train stations
- Shinjuku Station (新宿駅)
- Shinjuku Station is the busiest station in the world, with over three million (3,000,000) people using it per day. In other words, more people travel through Shinjuku in a week than the entire populations of Canada, Australia, or the United Kingdom.
- Whity Umeda (ホワイティうめだ)
- Whity Umeda is an entirely underground shopping complex in the city of Osaka. The stores inside it have their own addresses: over 200 shops in over 30,000m² of space. So if you want to say your domicle is underground, this is possible.
- parks
西郷隆盛 - Ueno Park (上野公園)
- Ueno Park, especially during the nineties, is a beautiful park. It's also infamously known for its unofficial dwellers and squatters and homeless camps. So while it's illegal to actually attempt to erect a domicile there (the police occasionally tear down makeshift structures), you can register it.
tourist spots or amusement parks
Disneyland (in 千葉) - TDR: Disneyland & DisneySea
- Some Disney fanatics in the United States go so far as to move and live near the parks in Florida. In America (and in Japan), you can't live in the parks. But you can set your domicile to it.
Places Where Your Registered Domicile Can't Be
The "must have a postal address" rule mentioned above means that you cannot set/register the following places as your domicile:- Places not within a prefecture's border (県境).
No domiciles here. - The summit (山頂) of Mt. Fuji (富士山)
- As cool as this would be, there are actually parts of Japan, even on the main largest island of 本州, that literally "fall between the lines" of the 47 prefectures (都道府県) of Japan.
- Areas not registered/owned by any city/town/village (市町村):
- While it may be ironic to choose a place that is literally smaller than most apartments in the capital metropolis, these crags, atolls & rocks — administered by the government — can't be registered:
No domiciles here either. - Smith Island / Rock (須美寿島)
- This is how you would write the English name "Smith" in 漢字 (sinograms) in 当て字 (sinograms corresponding to foreign sounds) when it was discovered in 1870. Formed by volcanoes, it is only 30m² in area, and erosion has caused it to significantly change shape, according to ships that surveyed it in the early 1990s.
Lot's Wife (孀婦岩)
southernmost Izu Island - Just 3.7m² in area, but 100m tall, this volcanic island whose name is derived from an English reference to Genesis 19:26, was used by U.S. warships (submarines) as a reference point during World War Ⅱ.
But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
There are several tall rocks around the world, including one on a mountain in Israel, named after the wife that according to the Old Testament legend was turned into salt when she looked back at Sodom.
Bayonnaise Rocks (ベヨネース列岩)
Ambuscade & Baïonnaise (1798) - Discovered in 1846 by the French naval corvette vessel "Baïonnaise", this group of rocks was formed by volcanic activity in the mid 20th century is only 10m² in area.
- Kagoshima Prefecture's (鹿児島県) 鷹島
- Not to be confused with Nagasaki Prefecture's (長崎県) relatively much larger — pop. ~2,500 and 16.36km² — tourist oriented island of the same name ("Falcon Island") which you can register, it is an uninhabited set of about five rocks, total area 40m², in the East China Sea.
- While it may be ironic to choose a place that is literally smaller than most apartments in the capital metropolis, these crags, atolls & rocks — administered by the government — can't be registered:
- Former territories controlled by the dissolved former government of the Great Japanese Empire (大日本帝国), relinquished as per the Treaty of San Francisco (サンフランシスコ講和条約):
- the Kuril Islands (千島列島 / Кури́льские острова́)
- As part of the Peace Treaty with Japan, which officially restored Japan's sovereignty in the international community, Japan had to relinquish claims to the Kuril Islands:
Artile 2(c). Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kurile [sic] Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905.
The large island of Сахалин, which the Soviet Union took over after it declared war on the Empire of Japan at the end of the Pacific War, contained a large ethnic Ainu population in the southern half of the island — called Karafuto Prefecture (樺太庁) at the time. Most of these Ainu fled to 北海道 after the Soviet Union invaded in 1945 and displaced the local Japanese population in 1949. There is very little left of living Ainu culture, written or spoken, today; there are only ten native speakers of the Ainu language (アイヌ語) in the world today in 2015.
Tourists sightseeing on Russian territory.
7 Famous Places Japanese Register As Their Domicile Yet Can't Live There
All of these places have historical or political significance, thus they are popular choices for people that don't wish to indicate their "ancestral" home or where they were born (either for privacy reasons, because they are making a political statement, because they want to "be different", or because they have a sense of humor) yet they want to choose a place where it's obvious they can't possibly reside at.Imperial Palace (皇居)
- Address
- 東京都千代田区千代田１番
- (Chiyoda block #1, Chiyoda Special City, Tōkyō Metropolis)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately two thousand
- (in 2010)
- Significance
During the bubble years speculation made this real estate the most valuable property in the world: more than the entire state of California. The Imperial Family lives here, and prior to that, it was the location of the Edo Castle and the Shogunate lived there.
Total area including gardens: 3.41km²
Because the family actually lives there and needs twenty four hour protection, most of the palace is off-limits for the general public and tourism. The East Gardens and the adjacent Imperial Household Agency can be visited by appointment. Twice a year, on the Emperor's birthday and the day after New Year's Day, the inner gate is opened and the public gathers in front of the main hall where the Emperor and the Imperial Family wish the public well.
Additionally, the area circumscribing the moat and palace is a popular jogging course and park.
Similar to how many educated people know the address of the U.S. White House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) and the address of the U.K. Prime Minister's Office (10 Downing Street), most educated Japanese know the address of the Imperial Palace: Chiyoda 1-1.
This is probably why it is the most popular Registered Domicile that no non-royal Japanese can live in. For fun, I've set the "posting location" of this blog post to the address of the Imperial Palace. ☺
Osaka Castle (大阪城)
- Address
- 大阪府大阪市中央区大阪城１番
- (Osaka Castle block #1, Chuo Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately eight hundred
- (in 2010)
- Significance
"Osakans" are very proud of their city, their food, and their culture. There are many possible reasons for this, but similar to how some people from Chicago — which is actually a sister city of Osaka — feel they are in the shadow of attention compared to those from New York City, people from Osaka are aware that from a population and economic point of view, they are in third (second if you dismiss Yokohama as the ex-burbs of Tokyo) place to "Tokyoites" the capital. Osaka people also know that historically speaking, Tokyo was not always the center of Japan and that western Japan, especially Osaka, was the heart of the action. Osaka Castle is perhaps a symbol of that rich history as well as a reminder that Osaka's influence has existed for literally over a thousand years.
The traditional surrounded by the modern
Osaka Castle, originally a wooden structure, has been struck by lightning, burned down, exploded (gunpowder armory), and bombed multiple times, so the modern structure is an authentic replica from the outside, but constructed with modern concrete and a museum on the inside (that is even accessible to the disabled due to elevators).
However, the entire castle grounds, which are a public park, is 60km² and has over a dozen original structures which have been designated as important cultural assets. The 17th century walls, made of interlocked granite from the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海), without mortar, by various samurai clans, still exist today — you can see the crests of these samurai engraved in some of the rocks.
Hanshin Kōshien Baseball Stadium (阪神甲子園球場)
- Address
- 兵庫県西宮市甲子園町１番
- (Kōshien Town block #1, Nishinomiya City, Hyōgo Prefecture)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately seven hundred
- (in 2011)
- Significance
- The annual National High School Baseball Championship (全国高等学校野球選手権大会) — aka 夏の甲子園 (Summer of Koshien), in which amateur high school athletes compete from around the nation — similar in popularity and familiarity to the United States' "March Madness" and its NCAA Men's Division Ⅰ Basketball Championship — is held in this western Japan stadium.
One of the largest stadiums in Asia for its time, it seats 55,000.
Additionally, Osaka's NPB professional baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, home field is here (if the Tigers were the Boston Red Sox, then the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants would be the New York Yankees).
Babe Ruth played an exhibition game here in 1934.
沖ノ鳥島 ("remote bird islands" aka Okinotori coral reefs/ islands aka "Parece Vela")
- Address
- 東京都小笠原村沖ノ鳥島
- (Okinotori Island, Ogasawara village, Tokyo Metropolis)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately two hundred
- (in 2010)
- Significance
- The southernmost territory of Japan, it is the only part of Japan that is, from a meteorological classification, located in the tropics, in the Philippine Sea. 7.8km² in total area, it is surrounded by concrete to prevent the erosion of more of its rocks. The Japanese coast guard maintains a light beacon on it and a small research station.
From an administration point of view, it is actually considered to be part of Tokyo's collection of small islands.
The Northern Territories (北方領土)
- Address
- 北海道色丹郡色丹村…
- (…,Shikotan County, Shikotan Village, Hokkaido)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately a hundred
- (in 2010)
- Significance
- Although the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan and the Treaty of San Francisco mention Japan giving up the Kuril Islands, the treaty doesn't specify exactly "what", "which", or "where" the Kuril Islands are. In particular, four islands off the coast of northern Hokkaido, which are close to the Kuril Islands, are not considered to be part of the Kuril Islands mentioned in the Treaty of San Francisco or the Potsdam Declaration because Japan was there prior to Russia ever discovering them and settled them peacefully without Russia's objection. The United States supports Japan's interpretation of the treaty and its position on Japan's sovereignty over the four islands.
The Soviet Union occupied the four islands in 1945 and Joseph Stalin expelled 17,000 Japanese nationals, replacing them with Soviets. The lack of resolution has prevented Japan from entering into a formal peace treaty with the Soviet Union / Russian Federation.
Japan has been negotiating with the Russians for decades to a peaceful, fair, and humanitarian (in other words, not affect the lives of the current Russians living on the island in any way) resolution to the dispute. While diplomacy has resulted in a few formal joint diplomatic statements, plans, and declarations, a complete resolution is still not near.
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竹島
- Address
- 島根県隠岐郡隠岐の島町竹島
- (Takeshima, Okinoshima Town, Oki County, Shimane Prefecture)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately ninety
- (in 2012)
- Significance
Sometimes also called the Liancourt Rocks by parties not wishing to recognize either side, the Republic of Korea asked that the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco include Takeshima in the list of territory that Japan must renounce sovereignty over, but this request was explicitly rejected in writing. Nevertheless, the President of the Republic of Korea designated Takeshima as part of South Korea's territory. That territorial designation resulted in the deaths of Japanese fisherman and one Japanese coast guard vessel being shot at which crossed South Korea's line in 1953. Since then, South Korean fishermen and their families have settled there, requiring the South Korean authorities to build infrastructure and maintain staff on the island to provide for them. As the volcanic rock land is not capable of sustaining human life naturally, the amount of artificial resources used to sustain the outpost and occupation has unfortunately caused a large pollution problem in the surrounding waters.
only 0.2km² with no drinking water
Japan has tried to settle the dispute legally and peacefully using the mechanisms of international law by asking that the judgement be done by the International Court of Justice. So far, South Korea has rejected all three attempts to let the ICJ mediate and judge on the matter.
Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島)
- Address
- 沖縄県石垣市登野城
- (Tonoshiro, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture)
- How Many Japanese Have Registered It As Their Domicile
- approximately twenty
- (in 2010)
- Significance
Sometimes also called the Pinnacle Islands by parties not wishing to recognize either side, Senkaku is a set of five islets and three rocks on 7km². China began claiming it belongs to them after the discovery of potential oil reserves in 1968. In Japan, this domicile is part of Ishigaki City in Okinawa Prefecture, 150km north of the main island whose primary produce is pineapples and sugar cane and has a population of almost 50,000.
Once had a bonito factory on it (1910~1940)
In 2012, the then governor of Tokyo, 石原慎太郎, attempted to have the local (not national) government purchase the Senkaku Islands from a private Saitama businessman who inherited the land deeds from the previous generations that did business on the land. Fearing that a local government purchase could lead to a change in the status quo (for example, a local government attempting to develop it by adding a park and jetty), the national government purchased it instead to lessen the chance of an international incident.
However, the action caused the people of China to violently riot, destroy (including arson), vandalize, and loot property/businesses, in addition to incidents of assaulting people — anything perceived to be Japanese — for many days. Additionally, private Chinese fisherman and the PRC military have tried to threaten the Japanese Coast Guard repeatedly (by ramming the vessels or aiming advanced weapons at them via fire control radar) for years, who has been trying to keep anybody — Japanese or non-Japanese — from landing on the territory.
While Taiwan has also taken the position that Senkaku is its territory, Japan has peacefully made an agreement with Taiwan to allow Taiwanese fishermen to use the Senkaku waters for fishing where the two countries EEZ overlap.
Choosing a Registered Domicile (本籍) That's Not Where You Live and the Actual Location of Your Paper Family Register (戸籍)
You don't need to select a registered domicile that's where you actually live or near where you actually live. You don't even need to choose a place that you've ever been to or plan to go to.However, be aware that if you choose a location that is not near where you live, anytime you do an update or request an official certified copy of your family register (戸籍謄本), either you or your local city/ward/town/village (市区町村) administrative office (役所) will need to relay the request via postal mail. This means that getting a copy will take a few days rather than be a same day operation. This is an improvement from earlier days, when doing this via the post office was not possible!
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| I live in Tokyo, but my domicile is registered as Osaka. |
Why this is the case in the 21st century: Much like how other countries keep hard copies of master vital records (ex. birth certificates & death certificates), Japan keeps a hard paper copy of family registers in locations across the country, and the digital versions are "backups".
Japan doesn't keep these records forever; as of 2010, records that are expunged or deleted due to administrative actions (death, loss of nationality, moving to another family register) are only physically maintained for eighty (80) years.
This is often a source of frustration for Japanese-Americans that are attempting to investigate their genealogical roots or prove they are 2nd/3rd generation ethnic Japanese (二世／三世 日系) for the purposes of receiving a Long-Term Resident SoR (定住者在留資格) and don't know where their families' Registered Domiciles (本籍), in other words the location of the Family Registers (戸籍) which is their "proof of legal nationality lineage / connection", are located.
You can never actually get the actual family register even if you go to the physical location where it's located, which is always kept in safe keeping by the government. You can only get "certified copies" of it and make changes through an official government worker at a city/town/ward office. Most of these copies are considered to be void after a period of time — usually three (3) months.
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| 『謄本』 ≈ "long form certified copy" |
What's interesting is that because your Registered Domicile can be in an inaccessible place (such as an unmanned island), the record may be stored as close as possible to your designated location, but it is not actually at the specified address!
Japan has been slowly converting from the B4 vertically printed (縦書き) quasi-analog versions of the 戸籍 (family unit / name registers) to digital one printed LTR (横書き) top-to-bottom on the international A4 paper since 1993; total digital transformation is expected to be completed in 2015 for the sake of national identification — which has already happened for non-Japanese with the 在留カード ([non-Japanese] Residence Card), which will completely replace the non-national locally managed ARC — Alien Registration Card (外国人登録証明書) — system in 2015 as all the legacy deprecated cards expire. However, they are not completely transitioned yet, and the systems across the country are not yet seamlessly sharing records across the network. In the future, access to one's family register in Japan may not be delayed by geography.
Fortunately, one does not need a copy of their family register, nor do they need to make changes to it, very often; the only time you'd need to do this is due to a life changing event (birth, death, marriage, divorce).
Discrimination and Privacy
Although anyone can change their Registered Domicile (本籍) to anything they like, can change it anytime and as often as they like, and don't need to have them or any member of their immediate or extended family, past or present, have a connection to the place they choose, many people choose a place that does have a connection to their past.Because of this, there have been concerns that if third parties were able to easily discover one's Registered Domicile (本籍), one may be able to determine if one has associated themselves with an area known for historically discriminated classes of people, such as:
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| A romanticized video game version of Ainu |
- 在日韓国人・朝鮮人 (ethnic Koreans in Japan)
- アイヌ (Ainu people; see above)
- 部落民 ("hamlet people"; ostracized outcasts of feudal Japan)
- 琉球民族 (natives from the former Ryukyu Kingdom now Okinawa)
International IDs: Registered Domicile on the Japanese Passport
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| No birthplace, but there is a domicile. |
This assists authorities in differentiating people with the same names without needing to remember the Passport No.
This also means that if you chose someplace really cool as your Registered Domicile (for example, Osaka Castle), you can't really prove it from your passport alone; there's not enough detail.
Interestingly, there's no place of birth on Japanese passports; while the Registered Domicile is likely to be the place of birth for many natural born Japanese, this is not guaranteed.
Many passports list the place of birth even if they are not primarily jus soli (nationality by birth location) based nationality laws. Some countries, like St. Kitts & Nevis, which make it extremely easy (money) to obtain citizenship, have had to re-issue passports with birthplaces on them so that countries can distinguish between those who obtained their nationality at birth (natural born) and those who obtained it simply using money/investment (naturalization); this is to keep their native-born citizens from being treated like those who bought their passport.
Fortunately, although naturalizing to Japan is not difficult for those who have legitimately lived and worked in Japan for many years, there are no shortcuts to acquire it via money, so the lack of birthplace on a Japanese passport is not a problem for other countries.
This means that with the Registered Domicile, naturalized Japanese are treated exactly the same as natural-born "native" Japanese on the passport; you can't prove somebody was naturalized by the information on the passport alone.
Domestic IDs: Japanese Driver's License
Japanese driver's licenses have one's complete 本籍 information on them (and on file), but this information is not visible to the naked eye anymore as driver's licenses are one of the most commonly used forms of domestic "photo" identification in Japan, partly because it existed long before the photo 住基カード (Resident Basic Info Card) was introduced to the public. It was used so often as a form of identity and address verification rather than being used to verify one's license to operate a motor vehicle, there is a large portion of the public known as "paper drivers" — those who have a license but never actually drive. |
| The 本籍 used to be below the name and above the address. |
There was a transitional period where the field existed but was left blank on the outside; they did this to:
- get people used to the idea that the information wasn't going to be easily visible to third parties anymore
- exhaust the existing stock of pre-made license card templates
Non-Japanese and 本籍
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| My old license when I was legally American: 1. non-alias "foreign" name in Latin letters 2. 本籍 not printed, but 『アメリカ合衆国』 in NFC IC |
In certain cases, immigration may try to use one's Japanese driver's license to ascertain Japanese nationality in exceptional cases when one's Japanese passport can't be presented at CIQ.
Stateless people's 本籍 will read 『無国籍』 ("no nationality").
However, the Japanese driver's license is the only case I know where the 本籍 data field is used like a 国籍 (nationality) field for non-Japanese. Even for the Chinese of Taiwan, which have had the concept of a 本籍 ("Ancestral Home").
台湾 (ROC/中華民國): 本籍 ("Ancestral Home") ⊃ mainland China
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| Note the 本籍 on reverse, bottom left, second from left (next to birthplace) |
Prior to the current 5th generation card (used from 1993 to present), the card had a field similar to the Japanese 本籍 (registered domicile) — same 漢字 (sinograms), with a similar meaning to "registered domicile": "ancestral home" or "home citizenship".
The place written in this area would usually be a place that most of the world thought Taiwan did not have sovereignty over: areas in the People's Republic of China. Older political thought and even older versions of Taiwan's Constitution claimed that the government of the Republic of China was the legitimate (but exiled to Taiwan) government of China (as opposed to the "Communist" government).
The current versions of the cards (1993 onward), in compliance with the Taiwan local identity movements, do not contain this information anymore, and the information is no longer recorded in Taiwan's 戶口簿 (Chinese family register).
Changing your Registered Domicile
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| A Japanese passport's 2nd page (usually blank) |
To do so, you need to fill out a 転籍届 (moving registration form) at your local administration office (役所).
You will need the following:
- One copy of your family register (戸籍謄本) if the new 本籍 (registered domicile) is under the jurisdiction of the same local government/municipality (自治体), otherwise you will need two officially issued copies.
- Your or your spouse's (depending on who is submitting it) inkan/hanko/chop/seal (印鑑／判子) that is associated with the identity.
- The actual 転籍届 (moving registration form). Again, you will need two copies if the change is to a different local government/municipality (自治体)
Only you and/or your spouse can submit the paperwork.
Once this is done and the "breeder document" is changed, you may or may not need to followup and change the following identification and documents:
- Your 住民票 (local resident registration) is automatically updated. No need to do anything.
- If the change of the registered domicile is to a new prefecture (都道府県), you will need to update your passport similar to how one updates or changes one's name. You will need to bring your new updated 戸籍 (family register) to your local passport office in addition to your passport.
- Most other official government IDs (国家免許) and things like doctor's licenses (医師免許) only have the prefecture (都道府県) written on them, and/or they cannot be changed until the next renewal period, so it's rare that a change is possible or needed.
- For those that own businesses or property, your 本籍 (registered domicile) is not recorded on the deeds or titles registries (登記簿), so no update is needed.
- Your driver's license will need to be updated. You will need to bring your old driver's license plus either your new updated 戸籍 (family register) or your updated 住民票 (local resident registration) to a local police station that processes driver's licenses. They will update the chip, and will note on the back that the 本籍地 (resident domicile location) has been changed — but it will not say what from or what to.
- Unlike a change in address, there is no need to inform your work or school; the registered domicile is none of their business (see above regarding discrimination) and doesn't affect anything.
