No More Gaijin Cards? New Foreigner Registration System Coming Soon
The Japanese government announced today that it will be scrapping the current alien registration system. The new system hasn’t been fully worked out yet, but it sounds like foreigners will be replacing their alien registration cards (aka “gaijin cards”) in favor of new form of ID:
Ministry officials said that registration certificates, which are issued by local bodies and which foreigners are required to carry at all times, will be abolished, and the Immigration Bureau will issue resident cards to mid- and long-term foreign residents containing their names, addresses and photographs. The cards will be handed to newly arriving foreigners at airports and to residents at local immigration offices. Local bodies that are shown the cards will record the relevant information in new registers.
Registration administration for non-Japanese is currently carried out separately for each foreigner rather than by household. Under the register system, the idea of classing foreigners by household in the same way as Japanese and reflecting this in notification of change of address, births, deaths, marriages and other details is being considered. Officials say this will prevent people from being left out of national health insurance, nursing insurance and child welfare benefit systems.
The most significant feature of the register system is that foreigners living in Japan would go from a state of simply being administered to being regarded as “residents,” thereby making it easier for them receive administrative services.
There is a high possibility that the registers for foreigners would be special ones separate from those of Japanese. While special permanent residents such as North and South Koreans residing in Japan will be added to the register system, they will be exempt from the resident card system. Because of this, debate is likely to emerge over whether it is necessary to create new, separate cards or identification for such residents.
