Short backstory for context. I need a copy of a Koseki from one of my wife’s family members. We need the Koseki to prove our connection to the city her family member is currently living in. We are getting pretty strong resistance from them in asking for a copy. As far as I know content of the Koseki is not particularly sensitive. Mostly containing marriage, death, relationships, etc. I am wondering if I am missing some cultural context on why someone would be protective of letting an immediate family member have a copy of the Koseki. My wife related it to a “passport” more or less and said it would be difficult for non Japanese to understand the significance. Can someone more knowledgeable than me educate me on why it is a difficult request? or the sensitivity of Koseki?
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I think the context will differ from family to family, so in some cases it could reveal family members who have been disowned etc.
You’re right about what it shows, but it also shows any past marriages or children they might be trying to hide lol.
On the more serious note maybe they just don’t want to help you for some reason? Or they’re very private? It’s hard to know without knowing the exact situation.
~~For passport? I only needed my own koseki to renew my expired passport.. why does she need a family member’s?~~
Sorry didn’t read it thoroughly 😖
Have you never heard of people pulling their birth certificate and opening a whole can of worms because the names on it didn’t match their mother’s or father’s?
A family record can be extremely sensitive.
Anyway you can tell them that the seller/whoever requires it in an envelope sealed with a hanko? That way they won’t be worried about you looking at it?
Or if they want privacy but are willing to help you… maybe they can just directly give the document to whoever is requesting it.
>we are getting pretty strong resistance from them in asking for a copy
That’s because only the “head of the household” (for Koseki, not juminhyo head of household) can get it, or the other people on it.
To get it you’d need power of attorney.
Have you actually just tried asking your wife’s family member to get it for you?
> We need the Koseki to prove our connection to the city her family member is currently living in.
What do you need to prove it for? Have you explained it to her family?
Family registers are very rarely needed and are used for legally binding documents and contracts. For example, marriage or inheritance. However, it may also be needed in other cases, such as when he/she are a guarantor for a debt. Therefore, it is a natural thought in Japan that even relatives should not be given easily.
I hope it’s the wife that’s asking and not you the Gaijin. If you need it for farm land or for buying a house and you’re already getting this much resistance from the family member, do you really want to live close by them? It probably doesn’t show anything, but that’s their way of saying ‘no’. Welcome to Japan
> is not particularly sensitive.
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How is that *not* sensitive?
Even with your surface level understanding it should be enough to understand why koseki is protected so much…
I don’t know what else to add other than “It’s a LOT of very VERY personal information.”
A mind-boggling story that I know of first hand: husband died, and in dealing with the aftermath it came out to the three children that the only mother any of them had ever known for their entire 40~50 years on Earth was not the biological mother for the two older siblings. It turns out that the husband’s first wife had died young, leaving him with two very-young children in the poverty that was post-WW2 Japan. Yet he found a woman that took on the baggage and married him, and she raised the two children as her own, adding one more. None of the kids knew any of this until their dad died.
So, the two older kids looked at the woman that had been their loving mother for 50+ years, and said “we are not related” and abandoned her. To them, “family” was a scientific matter of DNA, and had nothing to do with who people are to each other. It boggles (and disgusts) the mind.