Registering at City Hall: 住民票, My Number, Insurance, and Pension

The one visit that unlocks everyday life

City hall — your municipal or ward office — is where you become a registered resident, and almost everything else in your first weeks depends on it. Filing your moving-in notification creates your 住民票jūminhyō (resident record), and from there flow your My Number, health insurance, pension, and — if you want one — a registered seal. Much of it can be done in a single trip, the legal deadline is 14 days, and how much you personally have to do depends partly on whether an employer is handling some of it for you.

What to bring

It depends on where you came from:

• Arriving from abroad: your passport and your 在留カードzairyū kādo. If your card is being mailed (because you didn’t enter through one of the card-issuing airports), bring the passport — and note the card will be sent to the address you register here.
• Moving from another Japanese municipality: first file a 転出届tenshutsu todoke at your old city and collect the 転出証明書tenshutsu shōmeisho (moving-out certificate); bring that, plus your residence card. (A move within the same municipality is a 転居届tenkyo todoke and needs no certificate.)
• Registering family together: original documents proving the relationship — birth or marriage certificates from your home country — with a Japanese translation.

The 転入届tennyū todoke form itself is filled in at the counter.

Step 1 — Your address and the resident register (住民票)

Filing the 転入届tennyū todoke puts you (and your 世帯setai, or household) onto the 住民票jūminhyō — the master record that other procedures read from. While you’re there, you can request copies of your 住民票jūminhyō for things like opening a bank account.

For a US person, this step carries a hidden significance: the date you register is, in practice, when you become a Japanese tax resident — it starts the Japanese national and local tax clocks, alongside your continuing US obligations (see Filing US Taxes from Japan). People here under SOFA status don’t register a 住民票jūminhyō at all — see SOFA Status in Japan.

Step 2 — My Number

A few weeks after you register, a paper 個人番号通知書kojin bangō tsūchisho arrives in the mail with your 12-digit My Number. Keep it — but know that it’s only a notification: it can’t serve as photo ID or as proof of your number on its own.

The マイナンバーカードmai nambā kādo (My Number Card) is optional and applied for separately, and it’s worth getting: it’s an official photo ID, it unlocks online government services and e-Tax, and it now also works as your health-insurance card. You can start the application at this same visit or later.

Step 3 — Health insurance

Coverage is mandatory — everyone must be on a public plan.

• Employees: your employer enrolls you in 健康保険kenkō hoken — nothing to do at city hall.
• Everyone else (self-employed, or not covered through an employer): enroll in 国民健康保険kokumin kenkō hoken here, within 14 days.

What you actually carry has recently changed. Japan has retired the old paper health-insurance card (健康保険証kenkō hokenshō) — new ones stopped being issued in December 2024, and existing ones expired through 2025. Now you either use a マイナ保険証maina hokenshō (your My Number Card registered as your insurance card) or you’re sent a free 資格確認書shikaku kakuninsho to show at the clinic. Either way, you pay about 30% at the counter. (The deeper detail is in Signing Up for National Health Insurance.)

Step 4 — Pension

Residents aged 20–59 must be enrolled in the public pension:

• Employees are in 厚生年金kōsei nenkin through their employer (Category 2).
• A dependent spouse of an employee is Category 3, registered through the spouse’s employer.
• Everyone else — self-employed, students, anyone not employer-covered — registers for 国民年金kokumin nenkin as a Category-1 insured person, here at city hall.

How the Japanese pension dovetails with US Social Security is covered in Nenkin and US Social Security.

Step 5 — A seal (印鑑登録), if you need one

Japan still uses personal seals (印鑑inkan, hanko) for some formal acts. Day to day a signature increasingly works, but major transactions — buying property or a car, certain loans and contracts — need a registered seal (実印jitsuin) and a 印鑑登録証明書inkan tōroku shōmeisho proving the seal is yours.

To register (印鑑登録inkan tōroku): residents 15 and over on the 住民票jūminhyō, including foreign residents, may register one seal and receive a card used to obtain the certificate later. The name on the seal must match your resident record, and whether you can register it in katakana or romaji depends on your municipality (and on that form being on your 住民票jūminhyō). If you won’t be making big-ticket purchases soon, you can skip this and come back when you need it.

Practical notes

• Timing: much of the above can be done in one visit — go early in the day and bring every document you might need.
• Mind the holiday closures. City offices close on weekends, national holidays, and the year-end/New-Year break (December 29 – January 3). Because the 14-day clock keeps running, arriving just before Golden Week (the cluster of holidays around April 29 and May 3–5) or the New Year break can squeeze your window — and offices are busiest the day they reopen. If your deadline lands on a closed day it rolls to the next day the office is open, but it’s safest to go on the first available business day.
• Language: English support at city offices is hit-or-miss; bring a Japanese-speaking friend if you can. Official multilingual help does exist — the Immigration Services Agency’s multilingual Guidebook for Living and Working, and the Foreign Residents Support Center (FRESC).
• Keep copies: 住民票jūminhyō copies and, later, the 印鑑登録証明書inkan tōroku shōmeisho are documents other procedures will keep asking you for.

The short version

• Go to city hall within 14 days of moving in; filing the 転入届tennyū todoke creates your 住民票jūminhyō.
• Bring your 在留カードzairyū kādo (passport if the card is being mailed); from another Japanese city, bring the 転出証明書tenshutsu shōmeisho; for family, relationship documents plus a translation.
• Your My Number notification arrives by mail; the マイナンバーカードmai nambā kādo is optional but useful — and it’s your health-insurance card now.
• Health insurance: employees via their employer; everyone else enrolls in 国民健康保険kokumin kenkō hoken here — and you’ll use a マイナ保険証maina hokenshō or a 資格確認書shikaku kakuninsho, not the old paper card.
• Pension: employees in 厚生年金kōsei nenkin; everyone else registers 国民年金kokumin nenkin here.
• Add a 印鑑登録inkan tōroku (seal) if you’ll need a 実印jitsuin for major purchases.
• Registering is also the moment you become a Japanese tax resident.

---

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Procedures and required documents vary by municipality and change over time — verify against the official sources below and your local city office, and bring cross-border tax questions to a professional experienced with US–Japan situations.