Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, a registered domicile (本籍, ''honseki'') is the place where a Japanese citizen is considered to have their roots. It determines the city/ward/town office where their

koseki A or family register is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households (basically defined as married couples and their unmarried children) to make notifications of their vital records (such as births, adoptions, death ...

is kept.

Features

A registered domicile is not necessarily the same as a Japanese citizen's place of birth or current residence (despite the name). It is printed on a person's

and passport, and is listed (albeit on the prefecture level only) on the latter in lieu of someone's place of birth. A registered domicile can be any address within the boundaries of Japan which possesses an official postal address and postcode. This has led to people registering their domiciles at addresses such as the

Tokyo Imperial Palace The is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor has his living quarters, the where va ...

(~2000 registrations) and

Okinotorishima , or Parece Vela, is a coral reef with two rocks enlarged with tetrapod-cement structures. It is administered by Japan with a total shoal area of and land area . Its dry land area is mostly made up by three concrete encasings and there is a ...

(~200 registrations). There are exceptions to this rule: places which do not fall within a prefecture's boundaries, areas not belonging to a city/town/village, and the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

. Naturalised Japanese (unless coming from a background like

Zainichi Korean comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

) often do not have ancestral origins or ties to a specific place in Japan; choosing a registered domicile from scratch is therefore part of the naturalisation process.

Academic analysis

Karl Jakob Krogness (2014) notes in ''Jus Koseki'' that, per Chikako Kashiwazaki (1998)'s exploration of the Japanese nationality system that it includes elements of ''jus domicilis'' (law of domicile). One who has a registered domicile in Japan is therefore Japanese because they possess such a domicile, and therefrom deriving a koseki.

References

{{Reflist Citizenship

Features

Academic analysis

See also

References