By KAZUMICHI KUBOTA/ Staff Writer
February 18, 2025 at 16:01 JST
The Justice Ministry (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Japan announced a key change to its family registration system that will allow individuals from Taiwan to list Taiwan, instead of China, as their place of origin.
The change will take effect in May.
The move triggered a sharp reaction from China, which regards self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun warned that Japan “should be careful with its words and actions,” telling a regular news conference on Feb. 17 that the “Taiwan issue is purely China’s internal affair.”
Under the current system, individuals from mainland China and Taiwan are required to write China in the “nationality” field of family registration certificates.
Justice Ministry officials said the revision to the ministerial ordinance for enforcement of the Family Register Law will coincide with the introduction of phonetic readings in hiragana above kanji characters to help with pronunciation.
A person from Taiwan who has already registered their place of origin as China will be allowed to change it to Taiwan after the revision takes effect.
Currently, when a foreign national gains Japanese nationality and registers it, the individual is required to fill in the country-of-origin field in the certificate form. If that person is married to or gets married to a Japanese, his or her nationality must be written down in the spouse’s nationality column of the Japanese’s family registration certificate.
The current system of lumping anyone from China or Taiwan under China dates from a notice issued in 1964. The system remained unchanged even after 1972, when Japan restored diplomatic relations with China and Taiwan broke off formal ties with Japan.
Regarding residence certificates and residence cards issued since 2012, foreign nationals had already been allowed to enter Taiwan in the “nationality and regions” field.
This triggered a campaign for Taiwan to also be listed as the place of origin on family registration certificates.
Under the revision, “Palestine” will be officially permitted as a place of origin on family registration certificates. Previously, it has been allowed only as a special exception.
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