Update: Certificate of Alien Registration Card no longer necessary for naturalization
The website has been around for over 10 years. As with everything, things change, and previous information written years ago on this website will become obsolete. When that happens and old information is no longer relevant, we will try to make a note of it on the site (just like how we point out when other sites on the internet make mistakes about Japan's naturalization process: we mention that in our "misinformation" section. Before the nationalized, digital 在留カード { zairyū kādo } (Residence Card [for non-Japanese]) and database existed, non-Japanese carried a card called the 外国人登録証明証 { gaikokujin tōroku shōmeishō } (Alien Registration Card, or " ARC "). Because these cards were not digital (they didn't have chips in them with cryptographically signed credentials and they were not NFC — near field communication), as part of the naturalization process, you would need to go to your local municipal office such as a 区役所 { kuyakusho } (w...