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Japanese marriage procedures - what do I need to know?

JimmySeal

Tubthumper
5 Mar 2006
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Hello everyone,

My fiancée (Japanese) and I are planning to file our 婚姻届 sometime in May of this year. The finickiness of Japanese beauracracy is nothing new to me so I want to make sure we have all the documents, etc. that we need before doing the actual filing. I'm hoping that other Americans who have been through the process can help me out.

An article on this site says the following:

If you want to get married in Japan, think I don't mistake if I say that everybody needs a birth certificate and a paper certifying that we haven't been married before. You'll need them to be sent from your home country and translated at your embassy.

I'm assuming this is true for Americans, but can anyone verify that? Also how, precisely, would I go about getting my birth certificate translated by the embassy? Is it something that has to be done in person? Also where would I obtain the paper certifying I haven't been married?

Anyway, for now I would appreciate any information that I can get and I will surely be back later with more questions.

Thanks in advance.
 
Congrats on your engagement!!

When I got married it was pretty simple and definitely not complicated at all.
We needed the birth certificate ordered from the home state but this depends on the ward/prefectural office of your fiancee's honseki.

You need to be old enough to legally marry according to your home state.
The woman can't re-marry within 6 months of her former marriage.
You both cannot be currently married. BUT you can be divorced (again, women need to wait 6 months).
Two witnesses for your konin-todoke.

Besides the birth certificate (possibly), you need to fill out a form on your identity and get that notorized at the US Embassy.

Anyway, there's a comprehensive informational section at the US Embassy website...I just joined and can't post urls so....
1.goto the tokyo us embassy website
2.goto one of the top tabs called u.s. citizen services
3.then pick marriage

has accurate info there
 
Awesome. Thanks for all the info. It looks like the thing to do is have my fiancée talk to her city office about the specific documents needed, but I have a few more questions if I may:

The embassy website says:
The Affidavit of Competency to Marry you completed needs to be translated into Japanese (notarization not required),

Do you know if this has to be an official translation, or can it simply involve me filling out the Japanese version of the form in Japanese?

Did you need to bring a translated copy of your birth certificate to the town/city office in order to register your marriage, and if so, where did you get it translated?

Thanks again for all your help and anyone else who has comments.

Lastly, do the two witnesses for the kon'in todoke need to be present at the city office when the forms are submitted, or can they sign it ahead of time?
 
Jimmy,
I'm American and married to a Japanese (in Japan). Did not need a birth certificate; your passport pretty much declares your nationality (which could have otherwise changed since you were born anyway). And this obviously does NOT need to be translated.

Contact your nearest U.S. consulate/embassy. They will give you the form you need to affirm/swear you are single now (signed in their presence). They will also tell you what documents your spouse needs (koseki tohon for one, not much more). Or just download here. Don't forget the cash you need.
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-7114a.html

Congratulations.
 
Lastly, do the two witnesses for the kon'in todoke need to be present at the city office when the forms are submitted, or can they sign it ahead of time?
Congratulations, Jimmy!

As far as I can remember (that's decades ago), yes, they can sign it ahead of time. It's not a big hassle submitting it the city office.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that the filing itself constitutes marriage in Japan. It isn't like in the U.S. where (typically) you get a license to marry and the marriage itself doesn't occur until done by a judge or clergyman.
 
Congratulations!

It's also probably worth checking with the municipal office you plan to file your papers at here in Japan. Depending on where you are, they may have different requirements. I found everything I needed on my city hall's website, but worst-case scenario you could give them a quick call. You shouldn't need much being an American.
Do you know if [the Affidavit] has to be an official translation, or can it simply involve me filling out the Japanese version of the form in Japanese?

You need to fill out the English one and get it stamped by the US Embassy. Then you can fill in the Japanese translation and just attach it. (That was my case at least. Hopefully your municipal office is just as relaxed.)
 
Thanks for the additional comments, everyone. It does seem like this is something that differs a little from place to place so I've asked my fiancée to check with her local city office as that's where we'll be doing the registering.

I'm sure that with whatever information she gleans and what I've received here, the process should go smoothly. Thanks again!
 
One more question

One more question,

Is there anything I need to do as far as registering my marriage with the United States? The Tokyo embassy page seems to say no,
No registration of your legal marriage abroad is required by the U.S. Government, and your Japanese partner need not come to our offices.

But that seems almost counter-intuitive to me. Could someone confirm the above?
 
Bump.

My fiancée's sister (who used to work in a municipal office) referred us to this website:
国際結婚での配偶者ビザ取得代行センター/中国・インドネシア・ベトナム・フィリピン等

Which says under the steps for getting married to an American (I'll just summarize steps 1-3):
1. Get the affidavit of competency to marry.
2. Submit the 婚姻届.
3. Retrieve the marriage certificate or new koseki.
4.上記で取得した書面を英訳して在日アメリカ大使館又は領事館で公証してもらいます。
公証された婚姻証明はアメリカのマリッジライセンスおよびサーティフィケートコピーに代わるものとして通用します。

This seems to be in correct contradiction with the bit I quoted from the Tokyo embassy site, and with something Glenski recently said on another thread:
I got married in Japan and have not done anything to register it in the USA.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks!
 
Not that I have any expert knowledge on this, but I have a feeling that No. 3 & 4 are optional?

I believe these steps are needed in the event that you and your future wife decide to leave Japan and settle in the US?
 
Bump.
My fiancée's sister (who used to work in a municipal office) referred us to this website:
international-marriage.info
Which says under the steps for getting married to an American (I'll just summarize steps 1-3):
This seems to be in correct contradiction with the bit I quoted from the Tokyo embassy site, and with something Glenski recently said on another thread:
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Thanks!
Read this stuff carefully.Everything.You really don`t need to do anything else.The best thing is to go to your ward/city office and clear the things up.When your procedure with Japanese is over you can think about your home country procedure.Rules are different in different countries.In case of the USA you don`t need to register your marriage in the US embassy.Start this website with three w.. :
crnjapan.com/marriage/en/marriageprocedures.html
 
@Glenski

Well as I said, it seems against common sense that the US Government wouldn't want any record of my marriage and this web site said the same thing that I was suspecting. I asked here 12 days ago about this and aside from your comment in a separate thread that I just happened to see, I had no further elaboration so I came back to ask again.
Ease up, ey?


Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped.
 
In fact, it's not that surprising that they don't make it mandatory, as the US gov is a very decentralized government. I admit that it seems against common sense for those of us from Japan or other countries (European states notably) where there exists a central registry of its citizens (marital status, official residence address, etc.) The US has none of that on the federal level. For citizens of Japan and many EU countries, it is indeed compulsory to report marriage to your embassy because the act needs to be recorded on the civil registry, in Japan's case it's the Koseki system.
What you quoted in the Post #13 is in fact not contradictory to what the US embassy is saying. If you want a marriage certificate that is accepted in the US, you can get your spouse's new Koseki and have it notarized there. It's really not about registering your marriage.
 
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