Koseki: the Japanese family registry

The Koseki (戸 籍) or family register is a document that serves to recognize Japanese families. This register must contain births, deaths, marriages, among other family information.

This document also helps to identify members of the same family and even prove kinship if someone wants to live in Japan to obtain a work visa, for example.

Now let’s understand better about the Koseki and the importance of this document for the Japanese population.

Structure of the register

The Japanese family register is in accordance with the Family Registration Law (戸 籍 法), article 13, and must necessarily contain the main information:

• Family name and given name;
• Date of birth;
• Date of registrations and causes (marriage, death, adoption, etc.);
• Names of the father and mother and the relationship with them;
• In cases of adoption, it must include the names of the adoptive parents;
• If married, declare whether the person is a husband or wife;
• If transferred from another Koseki, the old Koseki (occurs in cases of children who marry and cease to belong to the family Koseki and have their own);
• Registered domicile (honseki-chi).

This document is generally one page long, and as children are born, the number of pages increases. Any changes made to the document must be recorded and authenticated according to the law.

This document only makes an exception for members of the Imperial House of Japan. They do not exactly have a koseki, but an Imperial Lineage Register (皇 統 譜, kotofu). This measure is in accordance with Article 26 of the Imperial House Law.

The Koseki has the same representative function as birth, death, marriage certificates, and the census as here in Brazil.

The origin of the Koseki

The Koseki began in the sixth century in China, but it functioned as a census called kōgo no nenjaku (庚午 年 籍). Here in Brazil, it is like the IBGE, responsible for collecting information about families to understand the profile of Brazilian families.

The officialization of the Koseki only happened after the restoration of the Meiji period. At the beginning of this period, the population was still divided into feudal domains, making it more difficult to organize people.

So it was necessary to be more rigorous in the census to know where the Japanese families were located and how they were living in order to improve even commercial dealings. There was also a mix of foreign people with Japanese citizens.

After 1910, some reforms were made to the Koseki system, and in 2003 it was accepted that people identifying with a gender different from what was in the register could change their gender on the document.

Can foreigners have Koseki?

The answer is no! This register is limited to Japanese citizens. When a native marries someone from another country, for example, they can mention the spouse in the document, but this person cannot be considered the head of the family.

After the reforms of 2012, although a foreigner cannot have a Koseki, they can have a residence register known as jumin-hyo (住民票). This register was initially exclusive to Japanese citizens to provide public services and collect tax revenue, but now everyone can access it.

If someone has a certain degree of kinship with a Japanese person and needs a work visa, they can request the Koseki by mail.

It can also happen that Japanese parents have a child outside the country; in this case, it can be included up to three months of life. And if a person is under twenty years old and has lived in Japan for more than five years, they can receive Japanese citizenship.

Curiosities about the Koseki

As Japan still adopts a patriarchal tradition, the document requires that a head of family be designated, and in most cases, these are men. The person whose name is at the top of the list is called hitto-sha (筆頭者).

The whole family must be registered only with the father’s surname; the rule only changes when the children form their own families. Initially, it was a rule for the wife to take the husband’s surname, but since 2015, it has been allowed for the wife to keep her maiden name. If the husband wants to take the wife’s surname, usually because it is a name from an important family, he can do so, but it is not common.

Currently, a Koseki is allowed to have information from only two generations per family, that is, usually a couple and their children.

The Koseki has four categories: Koseki Tohon (戸籍謄本), Kotofu (皇統譜), Koseki Shohon (戸籍抄本), and Koseki Joseki Tohon (戸籍除籍謄本).

The Koseki Tohon is the complete koseki with the basic information of citizens. Kotofu is the register of the imperial lineage. Koseki Shohon is the individual information of a family member, and the Koseki Joseki Tohon is used to change names after marriage, divorce, or the death of a spouse.

The prejudice surrounding the Koseki

Until the end of the seventies, anyone could access the information contained in the Koseki. Therefore, this information ended up generating prejudice on the part of employers who required the Koseki from candidates for job vacancies.

If someone was a descendant of a burakumin (部落民), they possibly would not get the job. This class suffered a lot of rejection in Japan.

Or even, school-aged children could suffer prejudice for being raised by a single mother. It was only in 1976 that access to family records became restricted.

And there were even people who used the Koseki for crime! In September 2010, the Japanese government discovered that 230,000 elderly people had not had their deaths registered by family members in order to receive pensions!