Officials of Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward are overwhelmed by paperwork about the tens of thousands of people who keep their family registers in the central ward despite living elsewhere.
The ward receives telephone inquiries about the parcel number of the Imperial Palace almost daily from newlyweds across the country, who list it as their “honseki,” or the place where one’s family register is kept, in newly created family registers.
People can choose anywhere in Japan as their honseki, which is often translated as “registered domicile” or “legal domicile.”
About 3,000 people currently list “Chiyoda 1, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo,” the parcel number of the Imperial Palace, as their honseki, making it the most popular registered domicile in the country.
Tokyo Station’s parcel number, “Marunouchi 1-9, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo,” is also a popular honseki.
Ward officials said many people choose these well-known locations because they are easy to remember.
At the end of fiscal 2023, the family registers of 213,421 people were kept in the Chiyoda Ward, more than three times the ward’s 67,911 registered residents as of Jan. 1, 2023.
The figure is up from 189,069 in fiscal 2014.
A ward official said the amount of paperwork related to honseki has been snowballing.
The ward handles about 13,000 cases related to family registers a year, such as notifications of marriages, births and deaths.
It also processes about 30,000 cases related to supplementary family registers, which record the history of addresses where people on family registers have lived.
“We are stretched too thin,” a ward official said.
The ward has increased the number of officials who handle honseki-related administrative work. In April, four more will be added, bringing the total number to 30.
In August, the ward put a notice on its website saying it does not recommend using the Imperial Palace or Tokyo Station as new honseki because they are “easy for others to guess.”
The ward’s workload will increase further when revisions to the Family Register Law take effect on May 26, requiring the pronunciation of names to be added in katakana to family registers.
Ward officials will have to mail proposed pronunciations to people whose honseki are in the ward and add the katakana to family registers unless they receive corrections within a year.
AloJapan.com