How to Request Koseki and Juminhyo Copies
To request koseki and juminhyo copies, visit your municipal counter with photo ID, send a mail request to a distant honseki municipality, or use a konbini kiosk or the My Number Portal where available.123 Each channel suits a different situation, and fees differ by municipality and channel, so pick the channel before you queue.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at your local city or ward office, or at the Ministry of Justice for koseki matters.
Overview
A 戸籍謄本 (koseki tōhon, "full family-register transcript") shows every person recorded in a koseki, while a 戸籍抄本 (koseki shōhon, "individual extract") shows only a specified person.4 A 住民票の写し (jūminhyō no utsushi, "certified copy of the residence record") proves your registered address and household composition.1
Request the koseki copy from the municipality holding the 本籍 (honseki, "registered domicile anchoring a koseki"), which may differ from where you live.2 Request the juminhyo copy from the municipality where you reside.1 The flowchart below maps each situation to its channel.
Which copy do you actually need
Banks, employers, landlords, and schools usually ask for a juminhyo copy, not a koseki.1 Inheritance matters and marriage-related filings are the classic koseki situations.4
Check the receiving office's instructions before requesting. A juminhyo copy omits honseki, household-head, relationship, and nationality or residence-status fields by default, so a copy ordered without the needed fields marked is unusable for a purpose that requires them.1
In-Person Request at the Ward Office
The counter is the standard channel for both documents and the only channel that handles every case. Bring the request form and photo ID, pay the fee, and collect the copy the same day in most cases.
Tell the counter which entries the receiving office requires, especially honseki or residence-status items. Adding a field after printing means ordering and paying for a second copy.1
What to bring and the request form
Fill in the municipality's request form (Shibuya calls it the 住民票関係請求書) and sign it; no personal seal is needed.1 Accepted photo ID includes a My Number Card, a driver's license, a passport, a 在留カード (zairyū kādo, "residence card") for mid- to long-term foreign residents, or a Special Permanent Resident Certificate.15
A member of the same household can request on your behalf without extra paperwork. Anyone outside the household needs a signed power of attorney (委任状).15
Copies that include your My Number are counter-only. If an agent requests one, the office mails it to your registered address instead of handing it over.5 Counter hours vary by municipality: Shibuya's main counter runs weekdays 8:30 to 17:00, while Nerima's main office stays open weekday evenings to 19:00 plus Saturday mornings (as of 2026-05-28 and 2026-04-01 respectively; confirm current hours with your local office).15
Fees and same-day issuance
Counter fees are set per municipality and change on a local schedule. Shibuya charges 300 yen per juminhyo copy (as of 2026-05-28; confirm current figures with your local office).1 Nerima charges the same 300 yen and estimates about 15 minutes from reception to handover (as of 2026-04-01).5 Mitaka's schedule adds koseki pricing: 450 yen per koseki tohon or shohon at the counter (as of 2025-10-08).6
| Document | Counter fee (example) | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juminhyo copy | 300 yen | 2026-05-281 | Shibuya; Nerima and Mitaka charge the same at the counter56 |
| Koseki tohon or shohon | 450 yen | 2025-10-086 | Mitaka; honseki municipality sets its own figure |
| Amended-register or joseki copy | 750 yen | 2025-10-086 | Mitaka; needed for older inheritance chains |
Figures above are municipal examples, not national prices. Koseki copies are normally issued same-day at the honseki municipality's own counter; registers that were never computerized are the main exception.2
Mail Request for a Distant Koseki
When the honseki municipality is far from where you live, a mail request to that municipality is the statutory fallback, available at any time.7 Since March 1, 2024, an in-person wide-area request at any municipal counter nationwide covers koseki tohon, joseki tohon, and amended-register tohon as an alternative (as of 2024-03-01).2
The March 2024 wide-area service is strictly in-person: the eligible requester must appear at the counter with photo ID. Mail and agent requests are refused under this channel.2
How the mail request works
Enclose four items: the mailed request form with your signature, a copy of your photo ID (driver's license, passport, residence card, Special Permanent Resident Certificate, or health-insurance eligibility confirmation), the fee as a 郵便定額小為替 (yūbin teigaku kogawase, "postal fixed-amount money order" purchased within the last six months), and a stamped self-addressed return envelope.8
Address the return envelope to your registered address; offices return mail-requested copies to the registered address only.8 Shibuya's mail fee for a juminhyo copy is 200 yen per copy, and Mitaka's mail fee for a koseki tohon or shohon is 450 yen per copy (as of 2025-12-26 and 2025-10-08 respectively; confirm current figures with the receiving municipality).86 Allow about 10 days for processing alone, plus mail transit in both directions; Shibuya quotes roughly 10 days for processing (as of 2025-12-26).8
| Document | Mail fee (example) | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juminhyo copy | 200 yen | 2025-12-268 | Shibuya; money order plus return postage on top |
| Koseki tohon or shohon | 450 yen | 2025-10-086 | Mitaka; honseki municipality sets its own figure |
Include a daytime phone number so the office can reach you about defects. Incomplete sets sit unprocessed until fixed, so check every enclosure before posting.8
Konbini and Online Alternatives
A My Number Card unlocks two self-service channels: the konbini kiosk and the My Number Portal. Both bypass counter queues, and konbini fees are usually lower than counter fees.
Konbini multifunction-printer issuance
At a participating 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson, or Ministop, choose the administrative-services menu on the kiosk, set your My Number Card on the reader, enter the card PIN, pick the issuing municipality and certificate type, select the fields and copy count, feed the fee into the coin slot, and collect the printout and receipt.3
Konbini fees are set per municipality and usually undercut the counter: 10 yen per juminhyo copy in Shibuya (as of 2026-05-28; confirm current figures with your local office), 200 yen in Nerima and Mitaka, and 350 yen per koseki copy in Mitaka (as of 2026-04-01 and 2025-10-08).156 Kiosk availability follows each store's terminal hours and maintenance windows rather than the ward counter's calendar, so confirm before relying on a late-night run.
A koseki from a distant honseki needs one extra step first: advance registration (利用登録申請) with the honseki municipality, using the honseki address, the 筆頭者 (hittōsha, "first-listed head-of-register entry") name, and your My Number Card.9 Registration works only where the honseki municipality participates, and issuance unlocks once the J-LIS application site shows registration-complete for your application number.9 Do not plan a same-day kiosk trip for a first-time remote request; complete the registration and confirm its status first.9
My Number Portal online issuance
Since the March 2024 amendment, a 戸籍電子証明書 (koseki denshi shōmeisho, "electronic koseki certificate") can be provisioned through the My Number Portal: the portal issues a time-limited provision code (valid three months) that the receiving agency verifies directly, so procedures such as passport applications can complete online without a paper koseki attached (as of 2024-03-01).2
Acceptance is procedure-by-procedure and still limited, though expanding; the Ministry of Justice publishes which procedures accept the electronic certificate (as of 2026-09-08).2 Where the procedure you face is not on that list, use the counter, mail, or konbini channel instead.
Good to know
Requesting a koseki from a municipality you no longer live in
Three paths cover the distant-honseki case, and they are not interchangeable. A mail request to the honseki municipality works from anywhere by statute.7 An in-person wide-area request at any counter nationwide covers tohon-class certificates but excludes shohon and individual-matter certificates, non-computerized registers, mail, and proxies (as of 2024-03-01).2 A konbini request works only after advance registration and only where the honseki municipality participates.9
The konbini advance registration for honseki-remote koseki
First-time remote konbini requests fail without the advance registration step, and the failure surfaces at the kiosk, not earlier. File the registration with the honseki municipality, keep the application number, and verify completion on the J-LIS site before traveling to a store.9 Same-municipality requests skip this step entirely.9
Juminhyo field choices can force a second paid copy
Default copies omit exactly the fields some receiving offices demand: honseki for license applications, household-head and relationship for family proofs, nationality and residence-status items for immigration-adjacent filings.1 Each reprint costs another full fee, so confirm the field list with the receiving office and mark every needed item on the request form up front.1
Counter hours and certificate corners differ by ward
Main counters, branch offices, Saturday windows, and certificate-machine corners each keep their own hours, and wide-area handling may be main-counter-only.15 Shibuya handles wide-area juminhyo service at its main counter, excluding branch offices.1 Check the specific counter's page before visiting, especially on Saturdays or weekday evenings.15
See also
- Koseki: Japan's Family Register Explained
- Jūminhyō: Japan's Residence Record Explained
- My Number, Koseki, and Juminhyo Linkages
- Foreigner on Koseki Edge Cases
- Birth Registration and the 14-Day Rule
- Spouse Visa Application After Marriage Registration