Hyogo woman, child both likely to go without birth registration

Tuesday 20th May, 04:41 PM JST

TOKYO —

A 27-year-old woman in Hyogo Prefecture, whose birth is unregistered because of a controversial Civil Code provision, is due to give birth in June, making it likely that her child will also go unregistered, a civic group supporting her said Tuesday. The legal impasse is attributable to the provision that recognizes a baby born within 300 days of divorce as a child born to the mother and her former spouse even if the biological father is another man.

The ministry said that it has never heard of a case of an unregistered woman giving birth. The pregnant woman is unregistered because her mother married again 73 days after divorcing her former husband and her birth father is the man her mother got remarried to, according to the civic group. The young woman’s lack of legal status posed her difficulties in completing her mandatory school education and as a result, she attended a six-year elementary school only for four years, according to the civic group.

Last year she had a wedding with a former classmate, but they are not recognized as a lawfully wedded couple.

She learned that she was pregnant last autumn and was told by her local municipality that it would not be able to register her child’s birth on the grounds that the mother-to-be has no domicile of origin due to her lack of birth registration.

In May last year, the ministry issued a notice to municipal governments to redress the Civil Code rule to an extent. Consequently, a child can now be recognized as the offspring of his or her mother and her current husband, or as an illegitimate baby if a doctor’s certificate proving the mother became pregnant after she got divorced is produced.

The rule change, however, has so far helped to grant legal status to only a fraction of the children in similar plights.

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Latest 15 of 21 Total Comments Show All

borscht at 08:11 PM JST - 20th May

fingerless,

maybe her mother isn't legally married to her husband of thirty+ years. Even though they did all the paper work.
Triple888 at 08:18 PM JST - 20th May

The authorities should give her legal status for the sake of the future of her child. At the time of chaos around the world forgiveness should be practiced.
GW at 09:18 PM JST - 20th May

primitive primitive primitive, even calling Japan primitive wud be a compliment.

The stone age(thinking wise) has yet to arrive on these isles
romulus3 at 09:45 PM JST - 20th May

for the love of God, its just paper work!! This wouldn't stand in any other democracy. People would rightly go nuts and burn down the ward office. Change the damn rule! stupid bureaucratic dinosaurs!
KitsuneYoukai at 10:46 PM JST - 20th May

Wasn't one of the unspoken rules in Japan's past that if you lived with a wowan and ask her to be your wife and she agreed meant that you were married? Either way, this law is one of those no one ever bothered to readdress to move over into the 21st century.
European1 at 11:47 PM JST - 20th May

for the love of God, its just paper work!! This wouldn't stand in any other democracy.

Agree, but if you think here is democracy, forgive me, but you are dreaming. In some European countries are laws where citizenship is granted to cases where person is stateless but was found in certain country. Maybe this mother should take advantage of this law and get out of this stone age country, driven centrally by mindless people.
illsayit at 12:04 AM JST - 21st May

As mentioned there is other cases like this, and I agree it is basically just paperwork. It takes time because eventually everything works out for the person at hand, and is otherwise boring and menial. Why have they not registered until now?
presto345 at 12:10 AM JST - 21st May

This is outrageous. Do we have a bureaucracy which realizes they have to deal with people, humans? That their first duty is to treat their fellow men in a humane and sympathetic way instead of following the letter of a ridiculous law drawn up by some idiots ages ago? How long have they been dickering about this? Come on Fukuda, time to step in and do something you can be proud of.
jeancolmar at 12:10 AM JST - 21st May

This law is idiotic but it is also symptomatic. The impulse to exclude is the Japanese disease.
thepro at 12:16 AM JST - 21st May

What the hell is this law for?
usaexpat at 12:48 AM JST - 21st May

Is this stupid or what? It reminds me of the Mash episode where Hawkeye is declared dead and tries to prove he's not. Pretty simple solution that she should have been on her mother's Koseiki from the beginning regardless of who her father was.
rjdsr at 01:11 AM JST - 21st May

Japanese society has its rules and laws. They are there for a reason, though that reason does not have to made clear nor does it have to be explained to everyone. If you don't follow these laws, you suffer consequences. How is this different than any other nation?
presto345 at 02:22 AM JST - 21st May

Japanese society has its rules and laws. They are there for a reason, though that reason does not have to made clear nor does it have to be explained to everyone.

Are you kidding me? Rules and laws are here for the people by the people. The reasons need to be clear to every one.
Molenir at 02:43 AM JST - 21st May

No other way to say this, other then its just pathetic. Methinks this law needs to be revised further. Maybe allowing actual DNA tests to prove paternity, as well as fixing this moronic situation.

Register the damn girl, and her baby. And for gods sake her marriage too.
rjdsr at 01:02 PM JST - 21st May

Rules and laws are here for the people by the people. The reasons need to be clear to every one.

For the people, no. They are for controlling the people. By the people? No. They are by the leaders, the controlling class.

The reasons never have, and never will need to be made clear to the masses.