住民基本台帳法（じゅうみんきほんだいちょうほう）

No official English title

Sets up the Basic Resident Register (住民基本台帳) that each municipality keeps of the people living in it, the notifications residents must make when they move, and who may see the records or get copies of them.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 143
Amendments on the way: 19

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What this law does

Each municipality (市町村, including the special wards (特別区)) keeps a Basic Resident Register made up of one resident record (住民票) per person, which the mayor arranges by household. A resident record shows, among other things, the person's name and its kana reading (振り仮名), date of birth, sex, whether they are head of household (世帯主) or else the head's name and their relationship to the head, their family register (戸籍) or that they have none, the date they became a resident, their address and when they set it, their previous address, their My Number (個人番号), whether they are on the electoral roll, their status in National Health Insurance, late-stage elderly medical care, long-term care insurance, the National Pension and child allowance, and their resident record code (住民票コード).(Art. 1(1), Art. 5(1), Art. 6(1), Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

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A foreign resident's (外国人住民) resident record leaves out the kana reading, family register, date of becoming a resident and electoral roll entry, and shows instead their nationality or region (国籍等), the date they became a foreign resident, and details by group: for a mid- to long-term resident (中長期在留者), their status of residence (在留資格), period of stay, its expiry date and residence card (在留カード) number; for a special permanent resident (特別永住者), their certificate number; for a person permitted temporary refuge or provisional stay, the period they may stay; for a person staying on after birth in Japan or loss of Japanese nationality, that fact. The Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁長官) must tell the mayor without delay on learning, in immigration work, that one of these items, or the person's name, date of birth or sex, has changed or is wrong.(Art. 30-45(1), Art. 30-50(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
A person who comes to live in a municipality (転入, other than by birth) must notify its mayor within 14 days of moving in (転入届), giving their name, address, the date, their previous address and their place in the household. A person who moves within the same municipality (転居) must notify within 14 days (転居届), and a person moving their address out of the municipality (転出) — to another municipality or abroad — must notify beforehand, giving their name, destination and planned date (転出届); a person whose household or head of household changes in any other way must notify within 14 days (世帯変更届), unless a Cabinet Order (政令) exempts them. Notifications are made in writing, and the mayor asks the person making one to show documents or explain, to confirm who they are.(Art. 15-3(1), Art. 17(1)(iii), Art. 22(1), Art. 23(1), Art. 24(1), Art. 25(1), Art. 27(1), Art. 27(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
A mid- to long-term resident, special permanent resident, or person permitted temporary refuge or provisional stay who comes to live in a municipality from abroad, or in a case a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Order (総務省令) treats the same way, must notify the mayor within 14 days of moving in, giving their name, address, place in the household, date of birth, sex, nationality or region, the date they became a foreign resident and the items for their group, and must show their residence card, special permanent resident certificate or permit. A foreign national already living in a municipality who becomes one of these must notify in the same way within 14 days of becoming so. A foreign resident who is not the head of household, where the head is also a foreign resident, must attach a document proving their relationship to the head when notifying, and must notify within 14 days if that relationship changes, except where a Cabinet Order says otherwise.(Art. 30-46(1), Art. 30-47(1), Art. 30-48(1), Art. 30-49(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
A person in the register may ask the mayor for a copy of their own or a household member's resident record (住民票の写し), or a certificate of items in it, proving who they are with a My Number card (個人番号カード) or another way a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Order sets; unless specially asked, the mayor may leave out items such as the household relationship, family register and My Number, and may refuse a request clearly made for an improper purpose. Anyone else may be given a copy showing the basic items — name and its kana reading, date of birth, sex, address, previous address and dates of residence — only if the mayor finds it proper that they need it to exercise a right or perform a duty, to submit to a public body, or for another legitimate reason; if their purpose needs other items they may ask for those too, never the My Number or resident record code, and get them where the mayor finds it proper. Lawyers (弁護士), judicial scriveners (司法書士) and other listed professionals may ask on the same grounds for a client, and public bodies may ask for copies for tasks set by laws and regulations (法令).(Art. 12(1), Art. 12(3), Art. 12(5), Art. 12(6), Art. 12-3(1), Art. 12-3(2), Art. 12-3(3), Art. 12-3(7), Art. 12-3(8), Art. 12-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Whenever a mayor enters, deletes or corrects a resident record's name, date of birth, sex, address, My Number or resident record code, the mayor sends that identity information (本人確認情報) to the prefectural governor, who passes it to the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems (地方公共団体情報システム機構); both keep it for a period a Cabinet Order sets. The governor and the Agency may pass it on or use it only in the cases the Act lists, among them: identity information other than the resident record code, to national bodies and corporations in Appended Table 1 (別表第一) for the tasks listed there — such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for passports, the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁) for residence cards, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare with the Japan Pension Service (日本年金機構) for pensions — and to prefectural and municipal bodies for tasks in Appended Tables 2 to 4 and 6, for resident-register work, or for tasks set by local ordinance (条例); the governor may also use it for the tasks in Appended Table 5. For the Appended Table tasks, a My Number is given or used only where the body may use it under the My Number Act (番号利用法), a separate Act, and a body that receives identity information may use or pass it on only within what its task needs.(Art. 30-6(1), Art. 30-6(3), Art. 30-7(1), Art. 30-7(3), Art. 30-9(1), Art. 30-10(1), Art. 30-11(1), Art. 30-12(1), Art. 30-13(1), Art. 30-15(1), Art. 30-15(2), Art. 30-25(1), Art. 30-25(2), Art. 30-29(1), Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
For each family register (戸籍) whose registered domicile (本籍) is in the municipality, the mayor keeps a family register annex (戸籍の附票) recording, among other things, the name, address and date it was set, date of birth and sex of each person in it. The person recorded, or their spouse, parents, grandparents, children or other lineal relatives, may ask for a copy, and public bodies may for tasks set by laws and regulations; anyone else may be given a copy showing only name, kana reading, address, the date it was set, date of birth and sex, where the mayor finds it proper that they need it to exercise a right or perform a duty, to submit to a public body, or for another legitimate reason. Lawyers and the other listed professionals may ask on the same grounds for a client.(Art. 16(1), Art. 17(1), Art. 20(1), Art. 20(2), Art. 20(3), Art. 20(4)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 states the law's own purpose

Resident recordMoving-in notificationMoving-out notificationForeign residentsCopies of the resident recordIdentity informationFamily register annexFines for not notifying

143 794 421 241 143

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . This law has 19 amendments on the way — , but . Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

1 October 2026

in 4 days

Act Partially Amending the Medical Care Act, etc.

医療法等の一部を改正する法律

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