Juminhyo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A juminhyo (住民票) or jyuminhyo is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each person to report their current address to their local authority, which compiles the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.

When proof of address is required, as in starting a telephone account or registering for a local school district, one may need to obtain a copy of this record from the local government.

This is different from the koseki, where one's entire family is registered. One can have a koseki in one location, while one is currently living in another where the juminhyo is registered.

A typical juminhyo is a handwritten record name and address. Once registered with the local government, one can obtain national health insurance forms and other social services. Juminhyo registration is also required before one can register a name seal (inkan), which functions as one's signature.

Only Japanese citizens are listed on a juminhyo; Japanese residents from other countries are recorded in a separate alien registration (外国人登録, gaikokujin toroku^?) system. If you are a non-Japanese married to a Japanese, you may request to be listed in the "bikoran" (remarks) section. This is a source of controversy within the foreign community. If a Japanese person is living in a residence where a non-Japanese is the householder, that person may be listed as the setainushi'. (This may happen, for example, if a Japanese woman is living with her foreign boyfriend.)

Although against regulations, the administrative penalty for not reporting a change in address is small. So if someone wants to keep from being found, they may purposefully not update their address after moving. If you need to force the address to be updated, you can submit a form at the local government office claiming that the person is not at the registered address. They will look into it. But of course, in order to know this, you must get a copy of the residence registration in the first place, which may not be possible unless you have a legal reason.

After leaders of the Aum Shinrikyo sect were arrested for a Sarin gas attack, members of the group successfully complained [1] that local authorities in several areas had refused to allow them to register, effectively preventing them from receiving government services, in order to discourage them from settling there.