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<3> Retaining the accuracy of the basic resident registration
It is the basis of the autonomy to always retain accurate data related to residents. The basic resident registration is the system for registering the data related to residents accurately and uniformly, and it is necessary to always make the contents registered in the basic resident registration correspond to the actual facts of the living situation (the name, birth date, sex, the family registration and so on which show the correspondence of each resident). The measures to secure the accuracy of the basic resident registration provided by the Basic Resident Registration Law are as follows.
A. Mayors' responsibilities
Mayors have responsibilities for making effort to register the data related to always arrange the basic resident registration to register the data related to residents accurately, and to take necessary measures to administer the record of residents appropriately (Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
In registering, deleting, and correcting the data of the resident card according to the notification filed by residents, mayors need to do so after examining whether the contents of the notification correspond to related facts (Article 11 of the cabinet order of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
And mayors must investigate the contents of the resident card regularly, such as once a year appropriately (Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). This is because it is difficult to retain the accurate data related to residents without investigating the actual situation regularly under the current situation that residents move frequently. In addition, mayors can always investigate the contents of the resident card and the actual situation if mayors decide to investigate the notifications filed by residents because the notification seems to contradict to the actual situation and so on (Article 34, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). In investigating them, mayors can make their staff members in charge ask questions to the persons concerned (the persons are those who are related to the facts investigated, such as the person himself, the persons with him in the same household, managers of dormitories), or ask them to turn in documents (Article 34, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). In this case, the staff members should have their identification cards with them when they ask questions to the persons concerned or ask them to turn in documents, and they need to show the identification cards if the persons concerned ask them to show them (Article 34, Paragraph 4 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). The person who does not answer the questions staff members ask for investigation, make false statements about the questions, refuse to turn in documents, hinder somebody from turning in them, or turn in false documents shall be sentenced to a maximum fine of 50,000 yen (Article 49 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
The staff members who currently take charge of or formerly took charge of the affairs related to investigations about the basic resident registration must not disclose secrets which they have known based on the affairs (Article 35 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). That is, since the staff members can know secrets related to personal information from investigations, the responsibility for keeping the secrets disclosed from investigations is imposed on them in order to protect personal rights and to make an appropriate investigation. According to Article 45 of the Basic Resident Registration Law, the person who discloses personal information known from investigations to a third person against this responsibility shall be sentenced to a maximum one year of imprisonment with hard labor or a maximum fine of 300,000 yen. The provision of the duty to protect privileged information provided by Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the Local Personnel Law deals with all secrets which general staff members can know from their affairs. On the other hand, Article 35 of the Basic Resident Registration Law is provided in order to impose the duty on special staff members for investigations such as temporary or part-time investigators based on Article 3, Paragraph 3, Item 3 of the Local Personnel Law. In addition, Article 36 of the Basic Resident Registration Law provides that the person who takes charge of or formerly took charge of affairs related to additional cards to the basic resident registration or the family registration which are delegated by municipalities also must not unnecessarily notify a third person of the information which they can know from the affairs or use them for unreasonable purposes.
In addition, Article 36-2 of the basic resident registration provides that the person who takes charge of or formerly took charge of affairs related to additional cards to the basic resident registration or the family registration which are delegated by mayors or municipalities must take necessary measures to secure the information registered in the additional cards to resident cards or family registration and so on.
B. The responsibilities to notify among mayor
The Basic Resident Registration Law also provides that mayors and other executive organs must notify each other of residents' living situation or family registration and so on so that mayors can know the information related to the contents of resident cards in if they are different from the actual situation as soon as possible. First of all, the responsibilities to notify among mayors are as follows.
(1) Mayors must notify other mayors whose residents formerly lived in their municipalities of the fact that they registered the information about these residents who changed their address from these municipalities to their municipalities in their resident cards as soon as possible if they did so (Article 9 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). This is because it is necessary for moving-out municipalities to confirm the fact of moving out because moving-out notifications are originally turned in before residents actually move out.
And this notification will be sent through the basic resident registration network system from the day when the Cabinet Order provides until August 2004 (Article 9 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
(2) When mayors receive notifications, applications or other documents related to family registration turned in by persons who live in other municipalities or register data in their family registration, mayor must immediately notify mayors in the current address of the contents which should be registered in their resident cards (Article 9 Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). This aims at a) securing the accuracy of the basic resident registration by relating the family registration with the basic resident registration, and b) easing the duty of notification of residents. The same contents in resident cards as in the family registration can be registered by the notifications of the family registration or by mayors. Therefore, if the place of the family registration is different from that of current address, it is necessary for mayors who receive notifications related to the family registration turned in to the municipalities other than the current address to notify mayors in the current address of the contents which should be registered in resident cards immediately.
Notifications, applications and other documents related to the family registration are as follows.
(a) "Notifications related to the family registration" - these are notifications related to birth, adoption, canceling adoption, marriage, divorce, death, disappearance, recovering the last name, entering the family registration, splitting the family registration, naturalization, losing nationality, changing the last name, changing the first name, changing the permanent domicile, and deciding the permanent domicile, and other notifications provided by the Family Registration Law, which include the notifications of losing the status of the royal family and registering in the family registration provided by the Law for the Person Losing and Getting the Status of the Royal Family.
(b) "Applications related to the family registration" - these are applications of correcting the family registration.
(c) "Other documents related to the family registration" - these are application forms of registering in the family registration, original documents of logbooks related to birth and death, various reports related to death, reports related to losing nationality, judicial decisions to correct the contents of the family registration, and so on.
(3) If the contents of additional cards to the family registration should be corrected at the permanent domicile, mayors in the current address must notify mayors in the permanent domicile immediately of the contents which should be corrected when mayors in the current address register in residents cards (Article 19 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). If the notified contents are different from the contents or records in the family registration, mayors in the permanent domicile must notify mayors in the current address immediately of it (Article 19 Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
(4) When the permanent domicile changes from one municipality to another, mayors in the old permanent domicile must notify mayors in the new permanent domicile immediately of the contents registered in additional cards to the family registration (Article 19 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
C. The responsibilities to notify between mayors and other executive organs
If municipal committees (election administration committee, education committee, personnel committee or equity committee, agriculture committee, and fixed asset assessment examination committee) find missing or wrong records in the basic resident registration or resident cards in administering or executing their affairs, they must notify mayors of their municipalities immediately of it (Article 13 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
The persons who are registered in the basic resident registration and have suffrage are supposed to be registered in the voters list (Article 15, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Resident Registration Law). Therefore, when mayors register in resident cards and so on according to moving-in notifications, remove notifications, moving-out notifications, or by themselves based on Article 8 of the Basic Resident Registration Law, they must notify their election administration committee immediately of the information related to the registration of the voters list (the name, birth date, sex, address, permanent address, and the date of notification or registration of the persons over 19 years old) (Article 15, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
When municipal election administration committees know that the person registered in the voters list does not live in their municipalities, they must register the fact in the voters list immediately (Article 27, Paragraph 1 of the Public Offices Election Law). And when municipal election administration committees find changes or mistakes in the contents of the records of the persons registered in the voters list, they must change or correct the contents immediately (Article 27, Paragraph 2 of the Public Offices Election Law).
Mayors and municipal election administration committees must show their documents each other in checking voters' address and other status of suffrage (Article 29, Paragraph 1 of the Public Offices Election Law).
D. The request from residents
When the person registered in the Basic Resident Registration finds mistakes or missing data in his resident cards or resident cards of the persons in the same household, he can request his mayor to correct them (Article 14, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Resident Registration Law).
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