Hi Everyone,
Me and my wife married in Tokyo in February, so I'm updating this thread to share our experiences....
Two foreigners getting married in Tokyo is actually pretty simple, as long as the paperwork is done correctly up front. We probably had the most complicated situation - I'm British, she's American, and neither of us live in Japan. So here's what is needed:
1. Choose your Ward office carefully.
The 'official' ceremony is carried out at one of the many government ward offices, and the official forms (and the certificate you'll receive) is all done in Japanese. We did a lot of research, looking at all the ward office websites, and found that two of the ward offices have English language services - Setagaya and Chuo. We chose Chuo-ko (close to Ginza) as they have a very helpful English language helpline (number on their website -
http://www.city.chuo.lg.jp/multilingual/english/support_in_english.htm...) and free interpretation service.
After a quick telephone call, the very helpful people at the ward office sent us an email to confirm exactly what documents we would need. We were then able to communicate back and forth very easily by email over the next few weeks and even have copies of our documents checked by email weeks in advance of us arriving in Tokyo, to confirm we had everything correct.
On the day we wanted to marry, the free interpreter at the Chuo-ko ward office met us at our appointed time and helped us complete the required forms. The interpreter was amazing and we couldn't have done all this without her help! Within 40mins we were married!
Two days later, we went to collect our marriage certificate from he same office - a beautiful scroll, all in Japanese with official seals and presented to us in a tube for safe keeping.
2. Prepare documents as far in advance as possible.
Once the required documents have been confirmed with the ward office, gather them as soon as possible. The documents we required were:
- A CNI (certificate of no impediment) for each of us.
- Copies of the picture pages of our passports (and those of our two witnesses).
All of these documents need to be translated into Japanese before arriving at the ward office (see note 3).
Note: Obtaining a CNI from the UK is more complicated than the US. In the UK you need to go to your local registrar and submit a notice of intent to marry, wait 3 weeks to allow anybody to object to the marriage, and then your CNI can be issued. For the US, the CNI can be obtained from the US Embassy in Tokyo within a day, but an appointment is needed, and these can get booked up weeks in advance.
3. Pick your translator carefully.
Most of the translations you can have prepared in advance, but if you are obtaining a CNI from the US embassy, you'll need a translator that can do an immediate translation for you. For example, we were able to use the same translator to translate my UK CNI and the four passport pages in advance by email. However, we obtained my wifes US issued CNI the morning we were to be married. Our translator was able to meet us close to the ward office and translate the document over lunch, allowing us to take all the documents to the ward office and be married in the afternoon.
It can seem a bit daunting to figure out what exactly is needed, so I would really suggest choose your ward office as soon as possible and confirm the requirements with them. We had a really smooth experience once we had made contact with Chuo-Ko ward office. I'd really recommend them!
Good luck!