Are you a New Zealander getting married in Japan? Here is what you need to do.
1. Contact your local office – 区役所 (kuyakusho) and ask them what documents they require.
The New Zealand embassy states that you need a certificate of no impediment (application form here), your local passport, and your foreigner registration card. Depending on where you live, you will also need your birth certificate (not a copy) and translated versions of the above (not passport). You may translate the documents by yourself.
2. Once you have these you need to fill out a 婚姻届 (konintodoke) and have two people (anybody really) sign the document.
3. Your Japanese spouse will need a copy of their Family register (if you are not getting married in their local ward) and some other things (I would tell you, but your spouse can handle all of that anyway)
4. Take it all to the local ward office and hand it in.
Below are copies of the documents you will need if you are a New Zealand citizen and the Marriage Certificate you get afterwards (The big version ~1500yen – there is a smaller one for around 300 yen.). Please note that these have had all personal data erased, and that the Certificate of No Impediment pages have had the Japanese written on them; they do not come with a translation.
Original Birth Certificate
Birth Certificate in Japanese
Certificate of No Impediment
Certificate of No Impediment Page 2
Konintodoke
And finally, the Marriage Certificate. This is the only proof that you are married. Do not loose this!
Hello Chris,
I have a question, do you know if the birth certificate translation can be made by my fiancél? I’m trying to get married this december but that one is missing.
Thanks a lot!
Hello, hopefully you can get this and answer my questions.
Firstly can you please tell me if the Apostille and non-impediment paper size? Is it A4/B4 or another size? Reason is A kiwi friend of mine sent away for these papers to a notary and we want to make sure we have everything we need and that they are legit BEFORE submitting all the papers here in Japan.
Appreciate you reply in advance.
Cheers
Rick
Hi Bianca, sorry for the late reply, I haven’t been checking my blog for quite a while. I do believe the translation of the birth certificate can be made yourself – I did my own as you can see above – Might be best to double check with your local office though, just in case.
Rick – I believe all paperwork is A4, I dont’ recall working with any other sizes.
Cheers!
Hi Chris,
I stumbled across this post and your blog after researching for my own upcoming marriage in Japan (also a kiwi).
For the translations of the documents, is it ok to do these yourself? And do you hand in a separate paper with the translations, or just write Japanese above/below the English on the apostilled Certificate of No Impediment?
Still checking to see if my city office requires a birth certificate..hope not!
Appreciate any help! Cheers 🙂
Hi Flo, It’s been a while since I did this – if the rules are still the same, you should be able to translate yourself. You can see in the photos in this post where I’ve added the Japanese to a scan of the original. To make things easier, I also handed in a copy with Japanese only. Best of luck!
Hi, Chris. I’m just trying to get my cert of no impediment to marriage done now and I’m a bit surprised at the expense ($170). I don’t mind paying if I have to but thought you’d have mentioned the cost on your page, so wondering if I’m doing the right thing.
The form says “Country (1 Apostille)” and gives me a list of countries to choose from. What’s that all about? There’s also “Country (2 Apostilles)” below it. They each cost $170. I would have thought that verification of the translation would be more important! It would really help me out if you could clarify a bit of that. I’ve done a bit of googling but it seems not that many NZers are trying to get married!
Hello Chris
I have recently married in Japan
Konintodoke was filled out and accepted
translator advised we were know married
We were then advised to come back later that afternoon
to collect finally documents
We return back to collect documents all we received back was
a copy of the Konintodoke with official stamp, but no certificate
my question is this still accepted as part of a marriage certificate or should have we been giving a marriage
As shown in your blog?
Hi Aaron,
In Japan you should be good to go. You might have difficulty in other countries when trying to prove your marriage without the certificate. I’m sure there would be some way to obtain it. Check with the office you registered your marriage through.
Hi Daniel,
Sorry – I’m not too sure, its possible the certificate of no impediment has changed since I filled it out (my link seems broken). I can’t remember what it cost me either – was too busy with the paperwork to care :). It’s pretty odd that you can do the translation yourself (as you could just make it up) but that was what we were told when we did it. Worth double checking of course, rules can change. Best of luck!
Hi Chris,
Your blog was helpful but I’m still a bit confused. Do we need both the certificate of no impediment and the apostille document or just the “certificate of no impediment” will be enough?
And as for the translation part. We can translate ourselves but do we photocopy it and write the Japanese below each line?