Looking for my parents marriage certificate

I am searching for my mother who is Japanese. To get information from the government I need her full Japanese name with specific Japanese character for her last name, a birth date and where she was born. All I have is my birth certificate that says she was born in Japan, her age, and first and last maiden name. I thought if I go her marriage certificate, it would show this. My parents were married in Tokyo in September, 1954. Would I be able to get a copy of this? I live in the United States. My Dad was in the US Airforce stationed in Japan.

If you have the right information you can get it, the marriage would be recorded in the ward or prefecture office. They then produce an abstract of the certificate. I'd start with asking your mother or father for more information. The other option is if your mother naturalized as a citizen than immigration would likely have that information as part of her application.

My father has past away and I'm looking for my Mom in Japan. Don't have any other info other than that the marriage was in Tokyo in September 1954.

You need an expert for this.

If your father was in the US AF when your parents were married – they may have been married at the US embassy in Tokyo. They may be able to confirm this, and the address of your mother at that time.

If they then moved to the US while he was still in the service – the DoD may be able to help you since they would have been involved in obtaining immigration permission for your mother to enter the US. A Dept of Veterans Affairs office might be able to help you.

Thanks Paul for the advice!

Do you know which ward (section) of Tokyo your parents got married in? If yes, then as the child, you should be able to apply for and obtain a copy of your mother's family register with her marriage to your father mentioned on it. There is no "marriage certificate" per se, but an official duplicate of this register should suffice as a certificate.

If your parents got married on the base, though, meaning according to US procedures and not the local Japanese procedures, you might have to ask via the military.

He doesn't know the ward, though he could try them all, would make for an interesting week.

I don`t think the bases did them - leaving that to the embassy. I could be wrong...

All marriages in Japan are done according to Japanese law. That means at the Japanese city hall, not the US embassy or on a military base. Even marriages between two US military members are done off-base.

https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-c...

A guest poster wrote:

All marriages in Japan are done according to Japanese law.

Yes, but U.S. Military bases in Japan is not "Japan". It's part of U.S. territory and people there follow U.S. laws.

Even marriages between two US military members are done off-base.

I couldn't find that information on the link you provided. Could you enlighten us?

Either way, I'm assuming that what the OP is being asked for is a marriage certificate issued in the country outside Japan. Japan doesn't issue marriage certificates in the first place, although they do issue �����󗝏ؖ��� (Certificate of Acceptance of Notification of Marriage) which no married couple commonly keeps.
http://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji15.html

I couldn't find that information on the link you provided. Could you enlighten us?

http://www.mcasiwakuni.marines.mil/Portals/112/Docs/sja/immigration/Ma...

They do issue sealed abstracts of the marriage and family register.

To the guest poster,

Thank you for the link, although I'm probably missing something. The link gives me the impression that the information is meant mainly for U.S. military members who might go out of the base, have a wedding ceremony with a Japanese girl, and mistakenly assume he is officially married. I have the impression that this is not about people getting married inside the U.S. base which is not Japan.

To PsyGuy,

They do issue sealed abstracts of the marriage and family register.

You probably mean the koseki. But the koseki is precisely what the OP is trying to find by finding the lost marriage certificate first.

To the OP,

Long story short, do as Paul suggests.

Here are some more details. Perhaps what they are asking you for is the "certificate of acceptance of marriage" issued by Japan. In that case, you should be looking for a paper titled �����󗝏ؖ��� but I'm afraid the paper is optional, so there is a possibility that your parents never bothered to purchase this certificate.

However, if your parents were also married under U.S. law, which is what international-marriage couples usually do, they might have something issued by the U.S. too. Either way, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the first place you'd want to ask for help, as Paul suggested.

Another thing is that in 1954, there were two U.S. Air Force bases in Tokyo. One was in Tachikawa-shi and the other is still in Fussa-shi. Perhaps your parents registered their marriage at the city hall of one of those two cities within the prefecture of Tokyo. If you are ever going to start asking every ward office in Japan about your family, try those two first.

By the way, have you also tried things like ancestry.com? They can often pinpoint people's birthdays and immigration info from whatever little info you already have. Good luck to you.

Thanks Paul for the advice!

My father has past away and I'm looking for my Mom in Japan. Don't have any other info other than that the marriage was in Tokyo in September 1954.

Just to add a bit – A service member needed military permission to get married and obtaining that permission involved an application process and a limited investigation of the spouse and his/her family. This process would have taken months and the information thus obtained/verified would then be used as the basis for the spouse�fs immigration application/green card for subsequent life in the US.

Thank you for the link, although I'm probably missing something

Yes, you did misunderstood it. The information on the link is for military members who wants to marry someone of any nationality in Japan. "In Japan" includes the military base. They can have a wedding ceremony in the chapel on the base but that doesn't make it a real marriage.

You cannot get married on the base. Trust me, I've tried. If you want to marry under US laws, you have to fly to the US.

Thanks again.

Judy ,I think you must be grateful all of above person (including Uco,Paul ,PsyGuy ....)Because they tried their level best as you really get your Mom Documents.Even in USA, I have never seen such kind of advice without a fee.Even some of them trying to bypass my problem.