Family register

The public record of who a person is related to by birth, marriage and adoption. One is made for each married couple and their children who share their surname, where they set their registered domicile (本籍); when a new register is made for a person married to a foreign national (外国人) or with no spouse, it is made for that person and their children who share their surname (Family Register Act, Article 6). The mayor of the municipality (in Tokyo's special wards and the wards of designated cities, the ward mayor) administers this work unless the Act provides otherwise (Articles 1 and 4). Besides the registered domicile, it records for each person their name and its reading, date of birth, why and when they entered the register, their parents and, for an adopted child, their adoptive parents, whether they are husband and wife, and the register they came from, among other things (Article 13). Entries are made on a notification (届出) — of a birth, a marriage, a divorce or a death, for example (Articles 49, 74, 76 and 86) — or on a report, an application, a court decision and a few other grounds (Article 15). When a marriage between a Japanese national and a foreign national is notified, a new family register is made for the Japanese national, not for the couple, unless the Japanese national already heads a register of their own (Article 6 and Article 16, paragraph (3)). A foreign national who lives in a municipality as a mid- to long-term resident (中長期在留者), a special permanent resident (特別永住者) or in one of a few other categories is recorded in that municipality's resident record (住民票): instead of the family register entry a Japanese resident's record carries, it states their nationality, and for a mid- to long-term resident their status of residence (在留資格) and period of stay (Residential Basic Book Act, Article 30-45). A foreign national in none of those categories is not recorded there (Article 39).