Birth Registration (Shusshou Todoke)

2023/4/27
When you have given a birth in Finland, please submit a birth registration (Shusshou Todoke) within 3 months from the birthday to the Embassy or the public office of the legal domicile in Japan.

If the newborn acquires automatically a foreign nationality, s/he will lose a Japanese nationality unless a birth registration with a sign “will reserve Japanese nationality (日本国籍を留保する)” is submitted within 3 months from the birthday.

It is possible to download a “mother-child notebook (母子手帳)” as a PDF file here.
 

Deadline

Within 3 months from the birthday.
 

Who can submit the documents?

The father or the mother.

However, the mother should submit if she is not in marital relationship.
 

Where to submit?

Directly or by mail to the Embassy of Japan in Finland or the public office of the legal domicile in Japan (Honsekichi).
 

Required Documents

1. Birth registration  (2 pieces)
Example 1  (For a newborn of the parents in marital relations)
Example 2  (For a newborn of a Japanese mother not in marital relations with the father)
2. Birth certificate (2 pieces: an original and a copy).
Please inform us if you would like to have the original one returned. A stamp or signature by the issuing organization/person is required. Please check that “the name of the parents or the child,” “the birthday (year, month, day) and time,” “the birthplace (the address where the child was born),” and “sex” are written.
3. Japanese translation of document 2 (free format, 2 pieces: an original and a copy).
The notifier may make a translation.
Please write the name, street address and telephone number of the translator in the end of the translation.
Please note that what are written in the birth registration (the birthplace, the name of the hospital in Japanese) must be the same in the translation.
4. A document showing the address of the hospital where the child was born (e.g. homepage of the hospital) and its Japanese translation (2 pieces: an original and a copy)
If the document 2 includes information about the address of the hospital, the document 4 is not required.
5. A questionnaire.
6. A statement  (2 pieces)
To be submitted only when the name of the mother in the birth registration is different from the one in the birth certificate.
 

Notes

1. Please send the documents to the consular section (shinsei (@) hk.mofa.go.jp) for pre-check before coming to submit. We will not accept the documents, if there is any imperfection.
2. If the newborn acquires a foreign nationality automatically, s/he will lose her/his Japanese nationality unless the birth registration with a sign “will reserve Japanese nationality (日本国籍を留保する)” is submitted within 3 months from the birthday. If a birth registration is not submitted in time due to reasons beyond the notifier’s ability (e.g. natural disaster), the Embassy will inform this to the Ministry of Justice, which considers the issue. In case the registration is not accepted, the child can acquire the Japanese nationality if s/he will fix an address in Japan and submit a registration about the Nationality Law, Article 17, Section 3 by age 18 to the Legal Affairs Bureau [Houmukyoku].
3. Those who have double (or more) nationality are obliged to choose a nationality by the age provided by the Nationality Law.
4. If the newborn has a Japanese father and non-Japanese mother, a birth registration cannot be submitted unless the parents submitted a registration of acknowledgment of fetus [Taiji Ninchi].
5. If the newborn has a Japanese mother and a non-Japanese father not in marital relations, please submit a registration of acknowledgement of child  [Ninchi todoke] within 3 months from the day of the acknowledgement in a non-Japanese way.
6. A legal guardian may be punished, if s/he takes the child/children under age 16 abroad without the consent of the other legal guardian (if both father and mother has the parental rights in Finland). Please refer to “About the Hague Convention and the parental rights. ”