Alien registration in Japan
Encyclopedia
is a system used to record information regarding alien
s resident in Japan
. It is handled at the municipal
level, parallel to (but separately from) the koseki
(family register) and juminhyo
(resident register) systems used to record information regarding Japanese nationals.
Foreigners staying in Japan
for more than 90 days (excluding diplomatic and SOFA
personnel) are required to register within 90 days of landing in Japan. The applicant must provide a completed application form, passport (for applicants 16 years old or older) and two identification photos. The system is voluntary for shorter-term visitors.
Alien registration is a prerequisite to many activities in Japan, such as purchasing a mobile phone, opening a bank account or obtaining a driver's license.
This information is recorded in a physical document called a , kept by the municipality in which the subject lives. Any changes in registered information must be reported to the municipal office.
If a resident alien moves within Japan, they are required to report their move to the new municipality of residence, which then takes possession of the tōroku genpyō. The tōroku genpyō is closed when the alien leaves Japan without a re-entry permit, and is then kept in an archive at the Ministry of Justice
. Any subsequent entry to Japan by the same person requires a new registration which is kept on a new tōroku genpyō.
called a , abbreviated (as is common in Japan
) to , and colloquially referred to in English as an "alien registration card" ("ARC") or "gaijin
card." All aliens in Japan are required to carry their passport or ARC at all times. The issuance of an ARC generally takes about two weeks from the filing of the application.
Alien registration may also be evidenced by a , which is an A4-sized
printed copy of the information currently on file, similar in form to the residency registration
certificates used by Japanese nationals. Because this form of certificate does not contain the subject's photograph, it is not as widely accepted as the ARC for identity verification purposes, and is mainly used as a temporary certificate when an ARC is unavailable.
The ARC must be surrendered when the foreigner leaves Japan unless they have a valid re-entry permit in their passport.
s as aliases in order to integrate within society. Ethnic Japanese
who live in Japan as resident aliens may use a legal alias to reflect their ancestral name. Legal aliases are also used when registering a seal in a different script than the applicant's legal name (e.g., in katakana
rather than Latin script).
A person is generally required to use their alias in public relations before registering it. The exact criteria vary by locality, but the most common evidence is mail addressed to the alias name. One common technique which applicants use to create this evidence is to label the post box
at their registered residence using the alias, and then mail themselves a postcard or letter addressed to the alias. One may also pay one's NHK
television fee under the alias, and then receive official bills using that alias.
Aliases may be registered upon initial alien registration. If the alias is registered subsequently, upon registration of the alias, the registrant receives a handwritten notation indicating the legal alias on the reverse side of their alien registration card. Any registration certificate which is subsequently issued will show the alias in type in parentheses just below the holder's name.
A registered alias may be used on credit cards, health insurance
, bank accounts and other documents. However, such documents may cause difficulties in foreign countries where the holder does not have personal identification showing their Japanese alias; thus documents in the registrant's foreign name may be preferable in non-Japanese speaking locales. Foreigners may obtain a Japanese credit card with a photo.
Japanese nationals often use aliases for non-official purposes. For example, women often continue to use their maiden names following marriage, even though they are required to adopt the same family name as their husband for their legal name. However, Japanese nationals are not permitted to use an alias for legal purposes: their name on any official document (e.g. passports and identity cards) must match the name appearing in their family register and resident register.
system used to record Japanese families and the juminhyo
system used to record individual residents. If a household contains any non-Japanese members, those members will not appear in the koseki or juminhyo alongside the Japanese members. However, both Japanese and non-Japanese members of a registered alien's family appear in the alien's registration certificate, and therefore one alien registration certificate can be used to prove their familial relationship.
One side effect of this situation is that it is impossible for an alien married to a Japanese national to be registered as the head of their household on a koseki or juminhyo. It is possible, however, to add a footnote to the Japanese spouse's records indicating that the alien is a .
s from all fingers. Resident Koreans and other groups opposed this provision as a human rights
violation. The fingerprinting system was repealed for special permanent residents in the 1980s and for other aliens in 1999.
The Japanese government has since introduced fingerprinting and photographing of aliens, claiming that this is a terrorism
control measure; fingerprinting is now conducted at the immigration checkpoint when entering Japan and is only conducted using the two index finger
s. Japanese nationals and special permanent residents are exempt from the procedure. The practice has angered many foreigners who do not wish to be subjected to fingerprinting, and who believe that the practice is grounded in xenophobia
, and can not be realistically justified based on the very small risk of "terrorism", as there has never been an incident of foreign terrorism on Japanese soil.
The fingerprint law is described in a UNHCHR report, PREVENTION OF DISCRIMINATION The rights of non-citizens, as follows: "An amendment to the Japanese Alien Registration Law recently abolished a fingerprint requirement to which all non-citizens had been subject. The revision of the law relieved about 600,000 residents from having to register their fingerprints. Instead, they will be asked to file their signatures or the names of their family members. Although the fingerprint law has been repealed, foreigners are still required to carry their alien registration cards at all times and violators face heavy penalties including incarceration for up to three years or fines of up to 300,000 yen. This requirement has been widely condemned abroad."
system.
More recently there have been moves to link registration with the , with the changes becoming effective April 2010.
Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...
s resident in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is handled at the municipal
Municipalities of Japan
Japan has three levels of government: national, prefectural, and municipal. The nation is divided into 47 prefectures. Each prefecture consists of numerous municipalities. There are four types of municipalities in Japan: cities, towns, villages and special wards...
level, parallel to (but separately from) the koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
(family register) and juminhyo
Juminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
(resident register) systems used to record information regarding Japanese nationals.
Foreigners staying in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for more than 90 days (excluding diplomatic and SOFA
Status of Forces Agreement
A status of forces agreement is an agreement between a host country and a foreign nation stationing forces in that country. SOFAs are often included, along with other types of military agreements, as part of a comprehensive security arrangement...
personnel) are required to register within 90 days of landing in Japan. The applicant must provide a completed application form, passport (for applicants 16 years old or older) and two identification photos. The system is voluntary for shorter-term visitors.
Alien registration is a prerequisite to many activities in Japan, such as purchasing a mobile phone, opening a bank account or obtaining a driver's license.
Registered information
The information stored in the alien registration system includes:- Date of registration
- Name (including any legal alias)
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Nationality and place of residence in home country
- Place of birth
- Employer/school, work/school address and occupation (if any)
- Passport number and date of issuance
- Date of landing in Japan
- Status of residence and duration of stay
- Residential address
- Information regarding household members (including name, date of birth, nationality and relationship)
- Information regarding parent(s) and/or spouse residing in Japan
This information is recorded in a physical document called a , kept by the municipality in which the subject lives. Any changes in registered information must be reported to the municipal office.
If a resident alien moves within Japan, they are required to report their move to the new municipality of residence, which then takes possession of the tōroku genpyō. The tōroku genpyō is closed when the alien leaves Japan without a re-entry permit, and is then kept in an archive at the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (Japan)
The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
. Any subsequent entry to Japan by the same person requires a new registration which is kept on a new tōroku genpyō.
Alien registration card
After a person registers as an alien, they are issued a photographic identity documentIdentity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
called a , abbreviated (as is common in Japan
Japanese abbreviated and contracted words
Abbreviated and contracted words are a common feature of Japanese. Long words are often contracted into shorter forms, which then become the predominant forms. For example, the University of Tokyo, in Japanese Tōkyō Daigaku becomes , Tōdai, and "remote control", rimōto kontorōrā , becomes rimokon....
) to , and colloquially referred to in English as an "alien registration card" ("ARC") or "gaijin
Gaijin
is a Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien". This word is a short form of gaikokujin , which literally means "person from outside of the country". The word is composed of two kanji: , meaning "outside"; and , meaning "person". Thus, the word technically means "outsider"...
card." All aliens in Japan are required to carry their passport or ARC at all times. The issuance of an ARC generally takes about two weeks from the filing of the application.
Alien registration may also be evidenced by a , which is an A4-sized
Paper size
Many paper size standards conventions have existed at different times and in different countries. Today there is one widespread international ISO standard and a localised standard used in North America . The paper sizes affect writing paper, stationery, cards, and some printed documents...
printed copy of the information currently on file, similar in form to the residency registration
Juminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
certificates used by Japanese nationals. Because this form of certificate does not contain the subject's photograph, it is not as widely accepted as the ARC for identity verification purposes, and is mainly used as a temporary certificate when an ARC is unavailable.
The ARC must be surrendered when the foreigner leaves Japan unless they have a valid re-entry permit in their passport.
Legal alias
Registered aliens are allowed to adopt an as a second legal name. Foreigners who are long-term residents of Japan, particularly ethnic Koreans whose families have lived in Japan for generations, often adopt Japanese nameJapanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
s as aliases in order to integrate within society. Ethnic Japanese
Japanese diaspora
The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as , are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants that reside in a foreign country...
who live in Japan as resident aliens may use a legal alias to reflect their ancestral name. Legal aliases are also used when registering a seal in a different script than the applicant's legal name (e.g., in katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
rather than Latin script).
A person is generally required to use their alias in public relations before registering it. The exact criteria vary by locality, but the most common evidence is mail addressed to the alias name. One common technique which applicants use to create this evidence is to label the post box
Post box
A post box is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service...
at their registered residence using the alias, and then mail themselves a postcard or letter addressed to the alias. One may also pay one's NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
television fee under the alias, and then receive official bills using that alias.
Aliases may be registered upon initial alien registration. If the alias is registered subsequently, upon registration of the alias, the registrant receives a handwritten notation indicating the legal alias on the reverse side of their alien registration card. Any registration certificate which is subsequently issued will show the alias in type in parentheses just below the holder's name.
A registered alias may be used on credit cards, health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
, bank accounts and other documents. However, such documents may cause difficulties in foreign countries where the holder does not have personal identification showing their Japanese alias; thus documents in the registrant's foreign name may be preferable in non-Japanese speaking locales. Foreigners may obtain a Japanese credit card with a photo.
Japanese nationals often use aliases for non-official purposes. For example, women often continue to use their maiden names following marriage, even though they are required to adopt the same family name as their husband for their legal name. However, Japanese nationals are not permitted to use an alias for legal purposes: their name on any official document (e.g. passports and identity cards) must match the name appearing in their family register and resident register.
Relation with other registration systems
The alien registration system is similar to, but completely separate from, the kosekiKoseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
system used to record Japanese families and the juminhyo
Juminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
system used to record individual residents. If a household contains any non-Japanese members, those members will not appear in the koseki or juminhyo alongside the Japanese members. However, both Japanese and non-Japanese members of a registered alien's family appear in the alien's registration certificate, and therefore one alien registration certificate can be used to prove their familial relationship.
One side effect of this situation is that it is impossible for an alien married to a Japanese national to be registered as the head of their household on a koseki or juminhyo. It is possible, however, to add a footnote to the Japanese spouse's records indicating that the alien is a .
Fingerprinting debate
From 1952 onward, alien registration required the applicant to provide fingerprintFingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s from all fingers. Resident Koreans and other groups opposed this provision as a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
violation. The fingerprinting system was repealed for special permanent residents in the 1980s and for other aliens in 1999.
The Japanese government has since introduced fingerprinting and photographing of aliens, claiming that this is a terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
control measure; fingerprinting is now conducted at the immigration checkpoint when entering Japan and is only conducted using the two index finger
Index finger
The index finger, , is the first finger and the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the first and third digits, between the thumb and the middle finger...
s. Japanese nationals and special permanent residents are exempt from the procedure. The practice has angered many foreigners who do not wish to be subjected to fingerprinting, and who believe that the practice is grounded in xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
, and can not be realistically justified based on the very small risk of "terrorism", as there has never been an incident of foreign terrorism on Japanese soil.
The fingerprint law is described in a UNHCHR report, PREVENTION OF DISCRIMINATION The rights of non-citizens, as follows: "An amendment to the Japanese Alien Registration Law recently abolished a fingerprint requirement to which all non-citizens had been subject. The revision of the law relieved about 600,000 residents from having to register their fingerprints. Instead, they will be asked to file their signatures or the names of their family members. Although the fingerprint law has been repealed, foreigners are still required to carry their alien registration cards at all times and violators face heavy penalties including incarceration for up to three years or fines of up to 300,000 yen. This requirement has been widely condemned abroad."
Proposed changes
The Japanese government is currently considering the amendment of the alien registration system. Under the proposed changes, non-Japanese residents would be recorded alongside Japanese residents in the jūminhyōJuminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
system.
More recently there have been moves to link registration with the , with the changes becoming effective April 2010.