(EJ) Children without family register records apply for passports in Japan

The Mainichi Shimbun
March 6, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070306p2a00m0na011000c.html

A mother whose child does not have family register records fills in an explanation form for the child's passport application at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday. (Part of application form digitally altered.)

A group of people whose children were left without family register records because Japan's Civil Code regards children of recently-divorced women as offspring of their ex-husbands filed applications for passports on Tuesday, backed by a nonprofit organization pushing for legal changes to the children's status.

Two people in the Tokyo metropolitan area and one person from Fukuoka Prefecture filed the passport applications on Tuesday. The three are part of a group of nine people filing applications with support from the "research institute for revision on laws concerning parents and children," a nonprofit organization based in Osaka.

Article 722 of Japan's Civil Code states that a child born within 300 days of a divorce is presumed to be the offspring of the mother's ex-husband. This regulation has made it impossible to register some children as the offspring of their real fathers. This, in turn, has left the children without family register records.

Masae Ido, 41, a representative director of the Osaka-based nonprofit organization supporting the applicants, said she wanted authorities to quickly adopt measures to solve the problem.

"A passport is different from a resident card, in that it cannot be obtained without family register records. Because of this law that doesn't match the situation or actual conditions, there are high school students who can't go on school trips. We want an urgent response to the situation," she said.

Applications for passports were filed in Kyoto, Hyogo and Kagawa prefectures on Monday, and further applications are due to be filed by people in Chiba and Osaka prefectures on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ido was due to visit the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Association of Prefectural Governors, the Japan Association of City Mayors and other organizations, and request that resident's cards and passports be granted uniformly to children without family register records. (Mainichi)

March 6, 2007

Couples seek kids' passports to protest family registration problems

Japan Today (Kyodo)
Monday, March 5, 2007 at 15:55 EST
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/400621

KOBE — Three couples with children with no family registration applied separately Monday for passports for the children in an attempt to protest against a Civil Code provision denying the children as theirs and to highlight disadvantages they are receiving for passport applications that require the registration.

The children have no family registration because the couples refused to abide by what critics say is an outdated provision saying that a child born within 300 days of the mother's divorce is regarded as the child of her and her former husband. The three couples, who have asked not to be identified except that they live in Kyoto, Kobe and Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, are among people calling for public support for their efforts to cope with disadvantages caused by the legal problem.

© 2007 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Help eyed for remarried moms

The Yomiuri Shimbun
March 2, 2007
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070302TDY03001.htm

The Justice Ministry is struggling to find a way to help remarried women affected by a law that makes it difficult for them to include their baby on their current husband's family register.

Under the current law, a baby born within 300 days of its mother's divorce will be regarded as the child of the previous husband, even if the child's biological father is the woman's current husband.

Various cases, such as unexpected premature births and long separations, make it difficult for the ministry to conclude where to draw the line.

Support groups estimate more than 3,500 women face such problems every year. The groups are urging the ministry to improve the situation as soon as possible with an eye to revise the law.

On Dec. 30, a 38-year-old woman in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, asked her doctor to postpone her Cesarean birth.

"It's been less than 300 days since I got divorced," she said.

Her doctor turned down the request, saying the situation could not be taken lightly.

As a result, she gave birth to a 1,194-gram baby boy 292 days after her divorce was finalized.

The woman got divorced in March after living separately from her previous husband for an extended period of time. Immediately after the divorce, she met her current husband and remarried in September.

"The expected delivery date was 343 days after my divorce, so I should've been free from the regulation," she said.

The government did not accept her birth registration as it stipulated that her current husband is the baby's father.

The woman then requested arbitration from the Tokyo Family Court to allow her husband to recognize the baby as his child.

Under Article 772 of the Civil Code, which was compiled during the Meiji era (1868-1912), a baby born within 300 days of its mother's divorce is regarded as the child of the divorced husband. The law does not cover cases such as extremely premature births, which are now less risky due to medical advances.

Even if a woman can prove that her current husband is her baby's biological father, she has to clear a legal hurdle to record the baby in his family register.

She either has to ask her former husband to testify in court the baby is not his or get her current husband to go through a legal procedure to recognize the baby as his own.

Last month, an Osaka-based nonprofit organization that supports women dealing with such issues submitted a petition to the Justice Ministry asking for the current law to be revised.

On Sunday, another nongovernmental organization provided free phone consultations, receiving calls from pregnant women as well as men who say the names of their previous wives' babies are on their family register.

The ministry has been examining the issue and is discussing measures to provide support to those affected by the law.

The radical solution is to revise the law. However, to do so, various other problems arise, such as choosing an appropriate time period instead of 300 days.

One solution is to review a notice issued in 1949 by the Civil Affairs Bureau chief to local governments instructing them to strictly apply regulations under the Civil Code. The revision would help register offices deal with the matter more flexibly.

On Tuesday, the Adachi Ward government announced it had issued a baby born last month a resident's certificate, but has refused to register the birth due to the matter involving the Civil Code.

The degree of flexibility to be given is still vague, as offices deal with a variety of cases, such as a woman who became pregnant by her current husband before getting divorced from her former husband or a woman who started dating her current husband before getting divorced from her former husband, but became pregnant after the divorce.

According to a senior ministry official, coming up with standards to objectively prove there were no marital relations between a woman and her former husband is difficult. But other observers say it is important to help women dealing with particular situations, including a premature birth.

(Mar. 2, 2007)

(EJ) Adachi Ward creates resident card for baby girl born out of wedlock

The Mainichi Shimbun
February 27, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070227p2a00m0na023000c.html

A certificate shows that the girl's name has been placed in the ward government's resident registry list.

Adachi Ward in Tokyo has created a resident card for a baby girl even though it refused to accept her birth report because she was born out of wedlock.

Japan's Civil Code provides that babies born within 300 days of their mother's divorce are classified as the children of their former husbands.

The 36-year-old mother first got married in October 1995. The couple divorced on April 26 last year, after some three years of living separately. She then got pregnant in May, and gave birth to the baby girl 282 days after her divorce.

Her current husband submitted the girl's birth report to authorities on Feb. 13, but it was rejected and the girl has not yet been registered in her family records.

The woman wants to register the baby girl as the current husband's daughter, so she planned to file a lawsuit, asking her former husband to cooperate, but the former husband is reluctant to comply.

The mother has begun thinking about the possibility of another lawsuit designed to push local government authorities to acknowledge her current husband as the girl's father.

After she sounded out Adachi Ward officials about the lawsuit, officials visited and questioned her. On Feb. 15, officials created the resident card for the baby girl, which should help with child services such as allowances, free checkups and vaccinations.

By law, local governments are required to give out resident cards once newly born babies are received in family registries. Although the Adachi woman hasn't had her baby girl registered, the ward took advantage of loose laws that allow local governments to form a resident card for a person after confirming the necessary facts.

"This is the first card we have created under these circumstances," an Adachi Ward official said. "If we face a similar case in the future, we will form resident cards again."

Women who want to register the birth of a child within 300 days of divorce generally need to file a lawsuit together with their former husbands to have the child registered in the family registry of their current husband. Only after the facts have been confirmed in the lawsuit and the child's birth report accepted, is it recorded in the family registry. (Mainichi)

February 27, 2007

Foreign minister asked to intervene to give passport to woman born out of wedlock

The Mainichi Shimbun
February 27, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070227p2a00m0na007000c.html

KOBE -- The Hyogo Prefectural Government has asked the foreign minister to issue a passport to a local woman who has no family register records because she was born out of wedlock to a woman negotiating with her husband for divorce and another man.

Japan's Civil Code states that children born to married women are classified as the children of their husbands.

The mother of the woman in Kobe had written in the daughter's birth report that a man who she was dating was the girl's father. The mother was talking with her husband at the time about divorce.

Law authorities refused to accept the birth report submitted by the mother. As a result, the woman, now in her 20s, has no family register records.

The Kobe woman has applied for a passport four times, but the government refused to receive her application because she doesn't have a family register.

The Hyogo Prefectural Government stepped in and sent a letter of request to the foreign minister. The letter said that birth certificates, or other similar documents, are suitable as proof to issue a passport to Japanese citizens. (Mainichi)

February 27, 2007