Foreigner registration in Japan
Former system for tracking foreigners
Foreigner registration in Japan is a system used to record information regarding aliens resident in Japan. Under Japanese law, foreign residents who work, study, or stay in Japan for more than 90 days (with exception to diplomats and military personnel under the status of forces agreement,) are issued a Residence Card zairyū kādo (在留カード) at a point of entry by Japanese immigration officers. Their immigration information is then submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
Foreign residents in Japan are required by law to carry their resident card with them at all time, or face a fine up to ¥200,000. Foreign residents are also required to disclose their place of residence to the appropriate municipal office, a process that Japanese citizens are also required to do. Foreign residents are provided with an Individual Number and are eligible to apply for a My Number Card and a proof of residency document, once registered an applicable municipal office. Both foreign residents and Japanese citizens are registered on the Basic Resident Registry Network jūmin kihon daichō nettowāku (住民基本台帳ネットワーク).
If a foreign resident leaves Japan and relinquishes residence, they must return their Resident Card before their departure at an airport, seaport, or the nearest Ministry of Justice office. Foreign residents temporarily leaving Japan who wish to keep their Status of Residence must apply for a Re-Entry Permit or Special Re-Entry permit and retain their Residence Cards on departure. In principle, Special Re-Entry permits are created ad-hoc at airports and seaports, whereas Re-Entry permits require advanced application.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Foreigner registration in Japan” as former system for tracking foreigners. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as former system for tracking foreigners. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4726493. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Foreigner registration in Japan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Foreigner registration in Japan primary sources, Foreigner registration in Japan archive and Foreigner research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Foreigner registration in Japan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.