Foreign Residents and the Family Register

By: Lucinda Otsuka.

The UMJ Volume 3.1 (Juminhyo Special)

"Internationalization" is a word in widespread use heard all over Japan. International marriages are on the increase but with it come many pressing grievances from foreigners married to Japanese on the problems of not being listed in the juminhyo (family register) and their desire to be listed as a complete family. The juminhyo is a document made out to Japanese nationals that verifies a person's name, address, birth date and family composition.

The Juminhyo Kihon Daichoho Dai 39 Jo states that non-Japanese are excluded from being listed in the juminhyo of a Japanese national. However, a notification passed by Jichisho (Ministry of Home Affairs) in 1967, gave non-Japanese household heads a right to be listed in the bikouran (remarks column) of his/her spouse's juminhyo. A listing in the bikouran or anywhere outside of the main column requires no law to be changed as this decision is left up to the head of each city, town or village to enact this change, if the city, town or village sees a necessity to do so. Some of the areas where non-Japanese household heads have already been granted a listing in the bikouran are: Kumamoto City, Fukuoka City, Kamakura, Zushi, Kawasaki, Machida, Musashino, Kokubunji, Kodaira, Takao, Kofu and Nerima ward.

Not being listed in the juminhyo poses grave problems because the juminhyo is an important document necessary for verification when entering high school and university, also elementary and junior high schools upon moving to a new area; application for a passport, car or motorbike license; when buying a car, house or land; and applying for a pocket bell permit. Some banks and post offices require it as proof of identity when opening a bank or postal account and applying for a loan, and some companies require job applicants to present it when applying for employment. The alien registration (gaijin toroku) does not substitute for the juminhyo, although city officials claim it does. When the juminhyo is called for, it is the juminhyo that must be presented and nothing else. Also, the alien registration does not state that the non-Japanese actually lived with his or her spouse at a particular address, and names of children are not even included. Japanese society stresses a complete family unit and automatically judges children from such marriages to be unstable and unreliable because of the absence of a mother or a father to receive proper child care. Some go so far as to infer that the child is illegitimate because of the non-listing of one parent.

Problems that have been encountered with a non-listing are: 1) non- Japanese women with Japanese spouses being asked to leave their neighborhood by the chonaikaicho (neighborhood head) who equated a non-listing with not having the right to live in the neighborhood; 2) difficulty in obtaining public loans because only one person is listed instead of the required two; 3) receiving visits from welfare agencies offering to help "single-parent households" with child care; 4) husbands receiving advertisements from wedding halls and also from dating agencies offering to match them with a woman of their choice; 5) a Japanese wife claiming parental right upon her divorce from her foreign husband convincing the school that the absence of her husband's name on the juminhyo proves that he never lived with the family and hence cannot be considered to be a proper father to the children; 6) an underage child being listed as head of the household upon the transference of work or the death of the Japanese parent; 7) when buying a condominium, having to present the juminhyo to the real estate agent who in turn is required to present it to the landlord giving the landlord a mistaken impression that the couple is not legally married; and 8) having to present it to the children's school when moving to a new neighborhood. And who can prove a school's questioning the legitimacy of the child, or turned down job offers of children of these marriages because of the listing of only one parent? The juminhyo files are, by law, open to the public. It is legal for the city halls and ward offices to give out information contained on one's juminhyo to a third party if they see no impropriety in the request. And as Kumamoto City Hall admits, it is difficult to prove impropriety.

However, governmental offices in most areas are not even aware of the ordinance that gives non-Japanese household heads the right to be listed in the bikouran, nor of the right of the non-Japanese dependent spouse to be listed in the bikouran upon permission by the local government, wherever the non-Japanese dependent spouse happens to be living. Kumamoto City enacted legislation effective from September 1, 1995 to include the name of the non-Japanese household head in the bikouran. Appeals from non-Japanese women who are not household heads to be granted the same right have fallen on deaf ears.

With the head of the Kumamoto YWCA who has been instrumental in helping us with this issue from the start, we visited the Gyosei Kansatsu Jimusho (Administrative Inspection Bureau) where we were informed that there is no law or ordinance prohibiting the listing of the non-Japanese dependent spouse in the bikouran. An inquiry to the Ministry of Home Affairs as to the feasibility of such a listing revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs has no objections to entering the non-Japanese dependent spouse in the bikouran, and that this decision will be left up to each local government on the condition that it sees a necessity to do so in carrying out administrative tasks.

In reply to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the reasons given by Kumamoto City Hall as to why the non-Japanese dependent spouse is denied a listing in Kumamoto City are: 1. no formal notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs and no precedent in other areas where this has been implemented; 2. there is no telling what problems might arise with the dependent spouse being listed; 3. laws and procedures must be reviewed first.

There are claims that because the juminhyo is by law open to the public, there is a possibility that a third party will peruse another's juminhyo and that the privacy aspect must be considered because there may be non-Japanese who have no desire to be listed in the juminhyo. However, a listing in the juminhyo need not be compulsory. In Kumamoto City it is limited to non-Japanese household heads who request to be listed. Unless a request is made to be listed, one's name will not be automatically included. This method will not be an infringement on privacy.

Looking at it from the side of the Japanese government, there are many benefits to be gained by having foreign spouses of Japanese nationals included in the juminhyo. For example, in the event of a catastrophic disaster where nothing is left standing in a particular area, having complete juminhyo files would make the task of identifying bodies and assessing the number of missing or injured easier for the government.

There was a case in Kumamoto of a Japanese man with a foreign spouse, proposing marriage to a Japanese woman. He used the juminhyo as proof that he was single. A Japanese man taking advantage of the system resulting in a Japanese woman becoming his victim is proof that a non-listing in the juminhyo is not an issue limited only to foreigners.

It cannot be overlooked that perhaps there will be households that may decide to take up the welfare officer's kind offer to help "motherless/ fatherless" families. This would be a waste of the Japanese taxpayers' hard-earned money that no Japanese would want to see wasted.

Long-term foreign residents with families in Japan are not demanding equal rights, just to be listed with our families to have a legal document showing proof of a complete family unit. An entry in the bikouran will suffice, as being listed in the bikouran (remarks column) does not entail any laws having to be changed. Being granted a listing in the bikouran is dependent upon permission from the head of the local government. Although an ordinance was passed in 1967 by Jichisho (Ministry of Home Affairs) giving the right to the non-Japanese household head to be listed in the bikouran, the same right was not extended to the non-Japanese dependent spouse.

We fulfill our tax obligations to the city including paying our share of resident tax (juminzei). Is it fair then that we are treated as residents only when it comes to paying taxes?

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