|
2 The Machinery of the Basic Resident Registration System
<1> Functions of the Basic Resident Registration
Article 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law prescribes that by the execution of "the Basic Resident Registration system that has precise and integrated records concerning residents",
Municipalities may
(1) make the foundation of the transaction of affairs concerning residents, such as certification of residential relations and registration to voters list,
(2) simplify the notice concerning residential address etc., and
(3) realize proper control of the record concerning residents.
As a result, municipalities may contribute to
(1) improve residents' convenience, and
(2) streamline the administration in the national government and local public entities.
"Certification of residential relations" is to certificate officially status of residents in municipalities. "Residential relations" includes a name that shows an identity of a resident and permit identifying a resident, date of birth, sex, and indication of Family Registration besides resident's address, things concerning address, such as change of address and things concerning life related with address, such as household.
<2> "Resident" in the Basic Resident Registration Law
"Resident" as an objective in the Basic Resident Registration Law is a person who has address within municipal area, limited to a natural person, and does not include a legal person. A person who does not have Japanese nationality and a person, whom Family Registration Law does not apply to, such as the imperial family, also are not applied of the Basic Resident Registration Law. (Article 39 of the Basic Resident Registration Law and Article 33 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law) Aliens who do not have Japanese nationality would be registered to the alien registration card in municipalities under the Alien Registration Law (Law No. 125 of 1952) that prescribes, "The Purpose of this Law is to establish equitable control over aliens residing in Japan".
<3> "Address" in the Basic Resident Registration Law
Article 4 of the Basic Resident Registration Law prescribes that "No one shall construe that rules in laws concerning residents' address prescribe an address that has intent different from the address defined in Article 10 Paragraph 1 of the Local Autonomy Law (Law No. 67 of 1947)." "Rules in laws concerning residents' address" are, for example, Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the Public Office Election Law (Address as requirement for an elector for members of local assemblies and governor/mayor) prescribing address of residents in local entities, Article 24, Paragraph 1, Item 1 and Article 294, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Local Tax Law (Address as requirement for a taxpayer for local inhabitants tax), Article 5 of the National Health Insurance Law (Address as requirement for an insured in National Health Insurance), Article 9 the Nursing Care Insurance Law (Address as requirement for an insured person in Nursing Care Insurance), Article 1 and 2 of the Enforcement Order of the School Education Law (Address of a person who is objective for school age list and has address within a municipal area), and so on.
Address prescribed in Article 10 Paragraph 1 of the Local Autonomy Law ("a person who has address within a municipal area is a resident in the municipality concerned and a prefecture including the municipality") is construed that it means the stronghold of each person's life as well as address in Article 21 of the Civil Law. In addition, the "address" in the Basic Registration Law legislated based on Article 13-2 of the Local Autonomy Law ("Municipality always shall maintain the precise record concerning status as residents for each resident according to provisions in another law") is, of course, the same as the address in Article 10 of the Local Autonomy Law.
Incidentally, there are "the single address theory" and "the plural Addresses theory" that since concepts of address in laws concerned have various purposes and ordered legal relations, the concepts do not necessarily correspond to each other, in the academic community unless the Basic Resident Registration Law was legislated and promulgated in 1967. In fact, as a consequence of various constructions in laws concerning address, there is an example that a person voted in "A" city, but was the insured person in the National Health Insurance in "B" city. Therefore, the situation retards the maintenance of precise and integrated records concerning residents.
In view of the situation, on the occasion of legislation of the Basic Resident Registration Law, the law integrated interpretations about address in laws concerning administrations into the "residents' address" in the Local Autonomy Law Article 10, declared that an address shall not be interpreted independently in terms of conveniences in execution of each law by establishing especially the provision of the Article 10.
The provision of Article 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law: "The national government and prefecture shall take necessary legal and other measures in order that all notice and other laws ... concerning changes about status as resident, such as changes of residents' address, household or householder and changes of residents' rights or obligation accompanying the changes to a mayor ... and other municipal executive organs will be made in single action and all transaction of affairs concerning residents will be based on Basic Resident Registration" also shares same kind with Article 4 of the Basic Resident Registration Law in terms of the provision for making the Basic Resident Registration into a institution "that has precise and integrated records concerning residents" in municipalities, or basic local public entities.
<4> Structure of Basic Resident Registration
The Basic Resident Registration in the Basic Resident Registration Law is an official list with records concerning residents, which consists of "Resident Card" of whole residents in municipalities. Resident Card is a card described with things concerning a resident for each resident. Because not household but each resident are prescribed as objectives in many administration, the law prescribes that Resident Card has by each resident unit. However, since fairly many administrations, such as the National Health Insurance, are dealing with household as objective of administration, the Basic Resident Registration is created making up a Resident Card by each household unit of each Resident Card for individuals (Article 6, Paragraph 6 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). On the other hand, in terms of execution of paperwork, when a mayor recognizes that a Resident Card by household unit is more appropriate than Resident Card by resident unit, a mayor may make all or part of Resident Card by household unit. Incidentally, "household unit" is unit of social life with same residence and livelihood.
Items described (hereinafter, called "recorded" when a Resident Card is made by a Magnetic Disc) in a Resident Card are as below (Article 7 of the Basic Resident Registration Law)
(1) Name
(2) Date of birth
(3) Sex
(4) Status of householder (a person who mainly keeps livelihood in household and is appropriate for a representative of the household in social custom), if a person is householder
Name of householder and a relationship ((a) Generally, supposing that a householder is center, a relationship is described such as householder, wife, child, child's wife, child's child, father, mother, elder brother, elder sister, younger brother, younger sister, grand father, grand mother, connection, inmate, (b) in case of concubinage, it is described husband (no notice) or wife (no notice), (c) connection is, for example, virtual adopted child.) with a householder for a person who is not a householder
(5) Indication of family registration (a head of a family registration and permanent domicile), or a fact concerned for a person who does not have a permanent domicile or
(6) Date becoming resident
(7) Address
(8) Date of notice of settlement of new residence, if a person settles a residence within a municipal area, and last address
(9) A fact concerned, for a person registered in the Voters List
(10) Date when a resident got or lost the status of the insured if a resident is the insured in the National Health Insurance (Article 3 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law).
(11) Date when a resident got or lost the status of the insured if a resident is the insured (hereinafter excluded the second type insured prescribed in Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the Nursing Care Insurance Law) in the Nursing Care Insurance (Article 3-2 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law).
(12) Date when a resident got or lost the status of the insured, Type of the insured in the National Pension and date of change of type, Symbol and number of the National Pension Pocketbook if a resident is the insured in the National Pension (Article 5 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law).
(13) Date when the child allowance began or ended if a resident get the child allowance (Article 6 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law).
(14) Things concerning rations of rice, which is prescribed in the cabinet order
(15) Resident Card Code for management of the Basic Resident Registration network system
(16) Other things. In connection with this item, Article 6-2 of the Cabinet Order of Basic Resident Registration Law prescribes that "things which a mayor accepts necessity of in order to execute and control affairs concerning residents in things that contribute to improve residents' welfare, and are admitted to no violation of privacy by request of a copy of the resident card and a certification of residential relations"
Around 1985, as municipalities streamlined and mechanized of the transaction of affairs, over half of municipalities conducting residents' record in a computer amounted to majority. According to such a change of the situation, a mayor may make a resident card by the Magnetic Tape (including a media which can record some things certainly in the way equated with a Magnetic Tape) from amendment of the Basic Resident Registration Law in 1985 ("the Magnetic Tape" was amended to "Magnetic Disc" by the Law No. 67 of 1994. Article 6, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
"The way equated with" the Magnetic Disc means the way that using data processing machine changes contents indicated by characters to other form (electric current, a line of magnetic force, light, and so on), and records by storing the changed data as some physical or chemical changes (residual electricity, changes of transparency of light, changes of electric resistance, and so on). "Amedia which can record some things certainly" is a magnetic disc, a magnetic drum, an optical disc, and so on.
<5> Additional Card to one's Family Register
The Family Registration is an official list that registers and certifies a status of a Japanese citizen, and nowadays it is not a list of residents in a current residence. And the current Family Registration system describes husband and wife as the core, and parents and child all together, not only shows the situations of relationship concerning individual status, for instance from birth to death, but also has index functions by which the family registration may extract and refer to participants' family registration, and shows a genealogy among participants. On the other hand, the Basic Resident Registration System purposes to record citizen as resident in terms of residential relationship.
However, both systems have records for citizen and same items such as name, additionally; the Basic Resident Registration has especially the indication of family registration (a head of a family registration and permanent domicile) (Article 7, Item 5 of the Basic Resident Registration Law) and makes following the Additional Card to one's Family Register system (Article 16-20 of the Basic Resident Registration Law) in order to cooperate with both. The system would prevent from registering a make-believe person or a same person twofold.
A mayor shall execute the Additional Card to One's Family Registration by each Family Registration unit for the person who has a family registration within their area (Article 16, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). A mayor also may make the Additional Card to One's Family Registration in last paragraph in Magnetic Disc as a cabinet order prescribes Paragraph 2, ibid).
The Additional Card to One's Family Registration describes (1) indication of family registration, (2) name, address, and date of settlement (Article 17 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). In addition, corresponding to establishment of the oversea ballot system, a mayor with a place of a family registration shall describe the fact of the registration and a name of the municipality concerned in the Additional Card to One's Family Registration for a person who is registered the Oversea Voter List based on a notice of the municipal Election Administration Committee (Article 17-2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). A mayor may enter, delete and correct description in the Additional Card to one's Family Registration with his authority (Article 18 of the Basic Resident Registration Law)
To keep precise content of the Additional Card to one's Family Registration, when a mayor in a place of residents' address registers in Basic Registration Card and so on, if the items in the Additional Card to One's Family Registration shall be corrected in court, the mayor with place of address shall modify the things concerned immediately to the mayor with the Permanent Domicile (Article 19, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). If the things notified by the mayor do not match to items or records in the Family Registration, the mayor with the place of Permanent Domicile shall notify immediately the fact to a mayor with place of residential address (Article 19, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
Moreover, when the Permanent Domicile is moved to another municipality, a mayor with original Permanent Domicile shall notify immediately the items in the Additional Card to One's Family Registration to the mayor with new Permanent Domicile (Article 19, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
|
