Beginning in May, Taiwanese people will be able to list “Taiwan” as their nationality in the household registry in Japan. Currently, both Chinese and Taiwanese nationals are listed under “China.” This has been the case since Japan severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1972.
The Nikkei reported that under Japan’s current system, even if a foreign national were to marry a Japanese national, they cannot enter a household registration in Japan. Foreign nationals must naturalize as Japanese citizens or become adopted by a Japanese family in order to enter the household registry. However, foreign spouses do have their name and nationality recorded in the marriage section of the registry.
The new update will change the “nationality” column to “nationality/region.” Japan’s Ministry of Justice noted that it was difficult to list Taiwan in the registry as it did not have formal diplomatic ties with Japan at the time of implementation. The ministry announced that Taiwanese people who currently have their nationality listed as China can correct it to Taiwan once the changes take place.
According to Nikkei, around 800 to 1,000 Taiwanese people marry Japanese citizens each year.