DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS C.6. Koseki (Family Registration) Koseki (戸籍) is the Japanese family registry.201 The koseki fulfills the function of birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses and the census. “Unlike the west, where registration is based on the individual, since its inception [in around the seventh century in Japan] population documentation… has been based on the household as the fundamental social unit.”202 The Family Registry is held and managed by the local municipal offices, not a central authority, although under Article 3(1) of the Family Register Act (Kosekihou 戸籍法) the “Ministry of Justice may set standards with which the mayors of municipalities must comply”; and under Article 3(2) the Legal Affairs Bureau with eight stations, and its District Legal Affairs Bureaus with 42 stations generally responsible for regions where prefectures are the units may “give advice or make recommendations to the mayor of a municipality… when he/ she finds it particularly necessary to ensure proper processing of clerical work related to family registers.”203 The koseki documents births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, dissolution of adoptions, parental authority and guardianship, marriage, divorce, deaths and disappearances, names and name changes, and the acquisition or loss of Japanese nationality. Marriages, adoptions and acknowledgements of paternity all become legally effective only when they are recorded in the koseki. Births and deaths become legally effective as they happen, but still must be filed by family members. Persons affected by such events are obligated to notify the local authority within a specific timeframe, and failure to do so can incur penalties (fines for late filings, and jail time for false filings). Aside from penalties, people would also be motivated to register to be eligible for certain welfare benefits, school entry, the issuance of passports, and other kinds of administrative actions. “In sum, the official registration of children as citizens depends on household-level cooperation.”204 Local authorities are obligated to compile and register such events for all Japanese citizens within their jurisdiction and failure to do so can incur penalties against the Mayor and municipality.205 201 Family Register Act (戸籍法), Act No. 224 of 22 December 1947. David Chapman, Geographies of Self and Other: Mapping Japan through the Koseki (自己と他者の配置−−戸籍を通して日本を 見る), The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 9, Issue 29, Number 2, 19 July 2011. 202 203 Legal Affairs Bureau, http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/m_hisho06_00034.html. Karl Jakob Krogness, Jus Koseki: Household registration and Japanese citizenship 戸籍主義 戸籍と日本国籍, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Volume 12, Issue 35, Number 1, 29 August 2014, available at: https://apjjf.org/2014/12/35/Karl-JakobKrogness/4171/article.html. 204 205 UNHCR / April 2021 Family Register Act, Chapter IX, Articles 132-138. 67