Order to Provide for the Form of Specified Residence Cards and Other Necessary Matters Concerning Specified Residence Cards
特定在留カードの様式その他特定在留カードに関し必要な事項を定める命令
The form of the specified residence card (特定在留カード), a residence card that also works as an Individual Number Card (個人番号カード), together with its PIN, the documents a person collecting it for someone else must show, and how long it is valid as an Individual Number Card.
- Text in force since
- Promulgated
- Articles
- 4
- Amendments on the way
- 0
What this law does
- Article 19-15-5 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act leaves the form of the specified residence card, and other matters it needs, to a joint Order of the Digital Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Justice (デジタル庁令・総務省令・法務省令), and this Order is that Order. The card takes the form appended to it (別記様式).(Enacting Stmt. 1, Art. 1(1), Form No. 1, Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 19-15-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Read the full overview
- A mid- to long-term resident who applies for a specified residence card, or a person who applies in their place, must give a four-digit PIN (暗証番号) for the card's Individual Number Card functions to the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems (地方公共団体情報システム機構), which sets it on the card. The PIN goes through the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency when the application is made at a regional immigration services bureau, and through the mayor of the municipality when it is made at the municipal office.(Art. 2(1), Art. 2(2), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 19-15-2(1), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 19-15-2(2), Rules on Applications for the Issuance of Specified Residence Cards Art. 1(1), Rules on Applications for the Issuance of Specified Residence Cards Art. 2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
- A person who collects a specified residence card for a mid- to long-term resident, or carries out the steps to collect it, must show material showing that the resident need not come in person, the reply form (回答書) about the application — sent by post that is not forwarded, or something similar, unless the officials accept a compelling reason — and a document proving their standing: a family register extract (戸籍謄本), a birth certificate or similar for a legal representative, and material showing their authority for anyone else. They must also show an identity document of their own, of the kinds a separate Cabinet Office and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Order lists. For the resident they must show two or more documents bearing the resident's identifying details: at least one an Individual Number Card, a landing permit for temporary refuge (一時庇護許可書), a permit for provisional stay (仮滞在許可書) or a document that Order lists, and any other a document issued by a public office, showing the resident's photograph, that the officials find suitable.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(1)(i), Art. 3(1)(ii), Art. 3(1)(iii), Art. 3(1)(iv), Art. 3(1)(v)) (the provisions it rests on)
- Under the Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures, a specified residence card counts as an Individual Number Card. Its validity as an Individual Number Card is the same as the specified residence card's validity, but leaves out any time the card stays valid only because a new card applied for in a renewal has not yet been issued, or because an application to change status of residence or extend the period of stay is still pending after the period of stay ended.(Art. 4(1), Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures Art. 18-5(9), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 19-15-3(2), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 20(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
- In either of those two cases the card holder may ask the mayor of the municipality, showing the card, to have its validity as an Individual Number Card cover that extra time too. In a designated city the request goes through the head of the ward to the mayor of the city.(Art. 4(2), Art. 4(2)(i), Art. 4(2)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
Form of the specified residence cardPINCollecting the card for someone elseIdentity documentsValidity as an Individual Number Card
Amendments
A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . e-Gov records no amendment to this law. This law's amendments page lists every amendment e-Gov records and, for those whose changes this site has read, shows them provision by provision, in Japanese and English.
e-Gov's record of amendments also lists the day this law as first made came into force, 14 June 2026. That is not an amendment.
Who it applies to
It applies to
- Mid- to long-term residents who apply for or hold a specified residence card, and the people who apply for it or collect it in their place.(Art. 2(1), Art. 2(2), Art. 3(1), Art. 4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
- The Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems, which receives the PIN and sets it on the card.(Art. 2(1), Art. 2(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Special rules and exceptions (3)
- A legal representative collecting the card need not show the reply form, unless the officials find it necessary.(Art. 3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
- The person collecting the card need not show their own identity document where the officials receive their name, address or date of birth and photograph from their card-substitute electronic record (カード代替電磁的記録), sent with software equivalent to a program certified under the Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures, and confirm with software equivalent to the one the Prime Minister provides under that Act that the record belongs to the sender.(Art. 3(1), Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures Art. 2(8), Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures Art. 18-3(1), Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures Art. 18-4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
- Where it is found difficult to show two or more identity documents of the resident, it is enough to show one Individual Number Card, permit or other document of the kind at least one of them had to be, together with another document the officials find suitable.(Art. 3(1)(vi), Art. 3(1)(vi)(a), Art. 3(1)(vi)(b)) (the provisions it rests on)
How it is enforced (2)
- This Order sets no penalties: it fixes the card's form and PIN, the documents to be shown, and its validity as an Individual Number Card.(Art. 1(1), Art. 2(1), Art. 3(1), Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
- The documents are shown to the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency and the other officials that a separate Cabinet Office and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Order defines (出入国在留管理庁長官等). Several of the resident's identity documents count only if those officials find them suitable, and they may ask a legal representative for the reply form where they find it necessary.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(1)(v)(a), Art. 3(1)(v)(b), Art. 3(1)(vi)(b)) (the provisions it rests on)
How it connects to other laws
Cites this lawLawThis law cites it
It also names 4 laws not yet held here.
Where the translation comes from
- 26
The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.
Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.
Sources
Everything this page rests on
- e-Gov (Digital Agency)特定在留カードの様式その他特定在留カードに関し必要な事項を定める命令 — the text in force from 2026-06-14Original
- e-Gov (Digital Agency)特定在留カードの様式その他特定在留カードに関し必要な事項を定める命令 — revision historyOriginal
- Machine translation, not official
- Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
- Written for this site with AIEnglish title of a law in this collection, written for this site
- Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text