Japan’s Ministry of Justice is to start allowing people to write “Taiwan” in the nationality field on household registration forms starting on May 26.
It is part of a change that would allow people to indicate a regional name alongside or in place of nationality, allowing Taiwanese who live in Japan to change their registration from “China” to “Taiwan.”
To register a household in Japan, it is necessary to be a Japanese citizen, the Japanese-language Nikkei reported.
Photo: CNA
Foreign spouses of Japanese citizens have their nationality recorded in the household registry, as do foreign-born individuals who later obtain Japanese nationality.
Regarding Taiwan and China, the issue of household registration dates to 1964, when the government had yet to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Nikkei reported.
To avoid issues, the ministry decided to register people from both the PRC and Republic of China as “China” to avoid issues, the report said.
About 800 to 1,000 Taiwanese marry Japanese spouses annually, statistics from Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior show.
This change brings the household registration document in line with Japanese resident cards for foreigners, which have allowed for people to list their regional identity since 2012.
It would also help the government better understand which foreign laws would apply in cases such as marriage, a ministry official said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that through the correct descriptions on Japanese family registers, the rights and interests of overseas Taiwanese in Japan would be further protected.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also expressed gratitude to the “long-term efforts made by various actors in Japan to address the issue of nationality descriptions on documents.”
As of the end of June last year, there were about 67,000 people from Taiwan living in Japan, the ninth-largest group among foreign residents.
The change also allows people to write “Palestine” as their place of origin.
The most recent changes do not mention Japan’s North Korean population, who still must use “Korea” in place of “North Korea.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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