Schmidt & Schmidt offers services for the acquisition of civil law documents as well as for the acquisition of replacement documents for lost or damaged documents in Japan with their further legalization and translation.

If the personal documents are lost or damaged or if you need up-to-date copies of documents, duplicate documents must be obtained. Most often when you are not in Germany, you have difficulty with this procedure. Our service allows you to remotely reclaim documents in Germany. We can also deliver the document to any place in the world by courier.

Validity of the documents

Civil status documents issued in Germany are generally not valid for more than 3 months. Then you have to obtain new documents with current data.

When do you need to get documents from Japan?

A duplicate certificate of birth, marriage certificate, change of name certificate, divorce certificate, criminal record or death certificates may be required to register a marriage abroad, register a newly born child, obtain citizenship, receive an inheritance, data for confirmation of a pension, open bank accounts, take up employment and clarify other bureaucratic issues.

The following documents can be obtained:

• Certificate of birth
• Marriage certificate
• Change of name certificate
• Divorce certificate
• Death certificate
• Criminal record
• Educational documents
• Other documents

We need the following documents for acquisition

Since civil documents are personal documents that contain personal data, they can only be obtained by their owners or persons authorized by them. In order to request documents, we first need a signed power of attorney from the owner of the document.

We also need:

• Copy of ID
• Information about change of name
• Information about the place of registration of civil registration

Responsible authorities:

Criminal records are issued by the Central Police Department in Tokyo. This document can only be claimed by the owner since fingerprints are required.

Documents of civil status are requested at the registry office (koseki - family registry) or other similar institutions.

Documents on education in the relevant educational institution.

Apostille from Japan

Japan joined the Hague Convention on simplified legalization of documents on May 28, 1970. On July 27, 1970 the Convention came into force. Thus, documents issued in Japan are subject to legalization based on the apostilling procedure, after certified translation such documents acquire full legal force on the territory of all other Hague Convention Member States. The apostille procedure takes about 2 weeks plus delivery time.

Time of the procedure

It usually takes about two weeks to get documents. In some cases, the time may vary depending on the time it takes for local authorities to process the documents.

This period does not include the time required to legalize documents and translate them.

Translation of documents from Japan

Copies and duplicates of civil status documents can be translated into other languages by a sworn translator in Japan. With their further legalization, Schmidt & Schmidt offers translation services for civil documents. The cost is calculated based on the scope of a specific document.