Japan’s household registration nationality column will allow “Taiwan” to be marked

From May, the Japanese Ministry of Justice will allow the region name to be marked in the nationality column of the household registration, in fact paving the way for marking “Taiwan”. The Japanese Ministry of Justice will revise the relevant provincial order. Previously, in principle, only the country name was allowed to be marked, and people of Taiwanese origin were marked as “China”. In the future, the identity of people of regional origin will be taken into consideration.

According to Japan’s current system, even if a foreigner marries a Japanese, he or she cannot obtain Japanese household registration based on this alone. The Japanese government only recognizes household registration for Japanese people, and records the name and nationality of the foreign spouse in the marriage information column.

Foreigners can apply for household registration when they obtain Japanese nationality or become adopted children of Japanese people. Record the nationality of origin in their household registration.

The Japanese Ministry of Justice will change the column related to “nationality” of foreigners in the household registration to “nationality and region”. Japan will significantly modify the system from May to add the kana pronunciation of names in the household registration. In conjunction with this system modification, the column related to “nationality” will also be modified.

The Ministry of Justice issued a 1964 notice before Japan and the Republic of China severed diplomatic relations in 1972 as the basis for marking Taiwan on household registers. It proposed that “the nationality of the Republic of China should be marked as ‘China'”.

The Japanese Ministry of Justice said that how to mark the household registers of people born in mainland China (the People’s Republic of China), which did not have formal diplomatic relations at the time, became an issue.

It is said that since it is not recognized as a country, it cannot be marked as “the People’s Republic of China”, but on the other hand, it is also considered inappropriate to mark it as “the Republic of China”, so it was decided that both sides would use “China”.

After the revision of the provincial order, people who have already marked it as “China” and want to change it to “Taiwan” can change it. According to marriage statistics released by the Taiwan Ministry of the Interior, about 800 to 1,000 Taiwanese marry Japanese every year.

Regarding marking both sides of the Taiwan Strait as “China” on household registers, some people of Taiwanese origin have called for the use of the mark “Taiwan” in order to maintain their identity. There is also a view that the current marking is inconsistent with the current situation where Taiwan is widely recognized as a “region” in the international community.

The resident records and residence cards issued to foreigners who have lived in Japan for a certain period of time have been allowed to indicate the region name in the birthplace column. The household register will also be unified with these official documents.

Japan’s resident records have set up a “nationality and region” column since 2012, when they began to be issued to foreigners. The residence cards under the jurisdiction of the Immigration Services Agency of Japan have also been allowed to record the region name since the system was launched in the same year. Previously, the “foreigner registration certificate” was marked as “China”.

The household register marking “Palestine”, which was previously recognized by the Ministry of Justice as an exception, will also be officially recognized through a provincial order. North Korea is not mentioned in the provincial order, and it is planned to continue to be marked as “North Korea”.