Koseki tōhon or shōhon: which to order
The Japanese system registers families, not individuals — which is why the choice between tōhon (the whole sheet) and shōhon (a single member) changes what you receive more radically than in any Western system. For descendants rebuilding lineages, the right answer almost always involves documents that don't even appear at the standard counter.
Tōhon vs shōhon
- Koseki tōhon (zenbu jikō shōmeisho) — ALL the members of the family sheet, with all the events: births, marriages, deaths, adoptions, acknowledgments. The proceedings format.
- Koseki shōhon (kojin jikō shōmeisho) — ONE member's data. It serves individual one-off uses; for family chains, it hides exactly what matters.
- The descendant's practical rule: always the tōhon. The whole sheet is what connects the generations.
Joseki and kaisei: where the ancestors live
The family sheet “closes” when everyone leaves it (death, a marriage opening a new sheet, a honseki transfer) — and becomes a joseki, archived for 150 years. And every reform of the koseki's format (the last big one, at computerisation) produced the kaisei genkoseki — the preserved old version. A typical immigrant lineage crosses: the current koseki → one or two kaisei → the original trunk's joseki. Ordering “the koseki” without ordering those layers returns only the story's modern tip.
The well-made order says it in full: “koseki tōhon, and all the joseki tōhon and kaisei genkoseki relating to the line of [name]” — the municipality understands and assembles the set.
Reading what arrives
The set comes in Japanese, with names in kanji and dates in imperial eras (Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa...) — Meiji 33 is 1900. The sworn translation converts everything; for a prior check, the era tables and the family kanji's transcription (kept in the immigration documents) let you validate from home whether the set covers the expected generations before paying for the translation.
The typical package for use in Brazil
The tōhon (+ the line's joseki/kaisei) + MOFA apostille + sworn translation from Japanese in Brazil. Special care with names: the same kanji has multiple readings, and the surname registered in Brazil is a period romanisation (Ohta/Ota, Itoh/Ito) — the translator's note connecting kanji and romanisation is what stitches the Japanese-Brazilian chain together.
Frequently asked questions
Can I order only my great-grandfather's joseki?+
You can — proving the line down to him. But the complete set (current + kaisei + joseki) usually costs little more and avoids a second order when the proceeding asks for the intermediate links.
What is the 'honseki' that appears on the document?+
The family's registered domicile — the address that anchors the sheet at the municipality. It is not where the family lived: it is where it is registered. It is also the data you'll need to order again in the future.
Informative content about request procedures. We do not cover citizenship or visa eligibility. Rules and amounts may change; always confirm before acting.