Obtaining birth certificate

Hello, I am in a complicated situation and I was hoping to find some help on this forum.

I was born in Tokyo in 1976 to parents who are both citizens of the USA. I was born in Shinjuku hospital. My father is of Italian descent and I am applying for Italian citizenship. To do this, I need my birth certificate from Japan. It needs to be apostilled by the Japanese government, translated into Italian, and taken to the Italian Embassy in Tokyo. If no birth certificate exists, I would need an official statement stating so, also apostilled.

I went to the Japanese embassy here in Washington D.C. and was able to use a receipt issued 2 weeks after my birth (in Japanese) to obtain a birth certificate. I sent it to a friend who was traveling in Japan and the Shinjuku office wouldn't apostille it, since it was issued from an embassy and not an original. Maybe some things were lost in translation, but I believe they said that my FATHER (not me!) was the only one who could obtain it? Furthermore, I was told by another source that foreigners records of birth are destroyed after 10 years.

I am wondering now if the receipt I have from the hospital will be able to be counted as a birth certificate, and be eligible for an apostille? Or if there is a way to get an official document stating that there is no record of a birth certificate, also apostilled? I am even willing to go so far as to travel to Japan to take care of this, although it would be much easier to do things from home.

I will try to attach a picture of the only record I have, the receipt of birth issued 2 weeks after I was born. I know that it is not a birth certificate, but it is all I have at the moment.

Thank you,
Ben

Also, just wanted to mention that the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) will not work for my specific application. I tried to use one and it was not accepted.

if you live in a foreign country and you can't come to Japan, the best way to get official documents is "hire a lawyer", because a third person can't touch other's personal information. only you (and highly close relatives ) and professionals can do it.

Have you tried asking Shinjuku City Office directly?
http://www.foreign.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/en/

And perhaps this FAQ from the Foreign Ministry might help too.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/cs/page22e_000425.html

I wonder if a proxy would help you obtain what you need.

OK, thanks for the additional information.

Regarding going to Japan myself, I can likely make that happen later in the year as I will be in SE Asia for a few weeks. It will be an inconvenience but I will do it if I have to.

I had a friend who I gave power of attorney to head to the Shinjuku office originally and it didn't seem to be a problem. Can anybody act in this capacity or does it have to be a professional lawyer?

Regarding the Shinjuku city office, I don;t see a link to email them directly. Is that possible?

Also - is there a way to post a picture on here? I'd like to show the "receipt" I have of my birth. Perhaps someone on here will be able to tell me if this qualifies for an apostille. Or if not, a way that this can help me get what I need?

Regarding the Shinjuku city office, I don;t see a link to email them directly. Is that possible?

I don't see an email address either, but I figured you could fax them (which is what I often do when sending inquiries to places outside Japan). The number is written at the bottom of the link I provided, and you should add the country code, so it would be 81-3-5272-5500.

They also do have a Japanese web format you could post inquiries and opinions on.
https://www.faq.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/op/opinioninput.aspx

From the top,
- Choose circle among 1) expect answer by postal mail, 2) expect answer through internet, 3) expect no answer.
- Can the Office share your information within the Office? Yes or No.
- Your zip code (optional)
- Your residential address.
- Your full name in kanji.
- Your full name in kana.
- Your phone number (optional)
- Your fax number (optional)
- Your email address
- Subject within 100 characters
- Inquiry/opinion within 10000 characters.

is there a way to post a picture on here?

You can upload an image on a photo site and post the link here. Be careful not to reveal any of your private information such as real full names etc.

probably, it could be something like 出生届受理証明書. it is the certificate that city office accepted the application of your birth report, probably by your parents.

"apostille" is not issued in city office.
of course, if you know more in detailed, you can do it by yourself. but, I think your knowledge is not enough to do by yourself right now.
this is not language problems.
hiring a lawyer is the best.

in Japan, birth certificate is not a fundamental document to keep longer. that is a document which intermediates reporting a new baby birth from a doctor to city office. (a birth certificate does not have a baby's name, whereas the application form to city office has a baby's name and parents name.) you have to know what document Italian government requests to you and what is a replaceable document.

Thank you Uco!

I will go ahead and fill out the form. However I have no idea how to write my name in kanji or kana...

Also, I would still like to post up the receipt issued to my daily after my birth but as its in Japanese, I'm not sure what to blank out. I may just post it up on here and hope that helps me to get the answers I am looking for.

-Benjamin Recchi

Ken, thanks for the insight.

The Italian Embassy isn't 100% clear on exactly what they want - only that it is apostilled and has my relevant birth information. I am assuming that to receive an apostille, the document will have to be issued by the government, and it will have to have all of my personal information.

For example, if the Japanese government would have apostilled the birth certificate I had issued to me by the Japanese Embassy in Washington, I am sure that it would be accepted by the Italian embassy.

I just tried to post the link to the photo but it was deleted?

@brecchi your post was deleted as we felt it contained too much personal information to be on a public forum.

you already have some document from Japanese Embassy.
you don't know what it is and how to use it.

I think you can't solve your problem, even if you ask city office. they will explain you what kind of document they can issue. but, they don't know what document Italian government accepts as birth certificate.

Admin - thanks for the explanation

Ken - I don't know exactly what the document says. I was hoping someone could tell me on here but it is not ok to post it here. I just know that it is a receipt from the hospital, issued 2 weeks after my birth.

The Italian Embassy should accept any certificate related to my birth, as long as it is apostilled by the Japanese government. I was not able to do this with the birth certificate issued from the embassy. I am not sure if the receipt I have is able to be apostilled. If it cannot be, I think I will need an apostilled document form the Japanese government saying that there is no record anymore of my birth certificate (since I believe they are destroyed after 10 years from what I have been told).

I think the first step is for me to find out exactly what the receipt says, which I will try to do on my own.

brecchi,

If you want to use the web format of Shinjuku City Office, try typing everything in alphabet and see if it works. But I have to say that I don't understand why you wouldn't send your message by fax.

As for the photo, like the admin suggest, your personal information may be abused if you upload it on the World Wide Web. Why not cover certain parts of your document with tiny pieces of paper before taking your photo? If you can't read the document and therefore cannot judge which parts to cover, just cover everything except for the title of the document and the frame. For example, if it says,
Name: John Smith
Address: 123 Abc-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
then cover everything on the right so that we can only see the part where it says,
Name:
Address:

to UCO,
What is the reason you believe that city office has information ?
they keeps birth information between foreigners only for ten years, as OP already mentioned here.
foreign parents must take care of getting a baby's nationality. ten years are plenty for that purpose.

if your parents were a resident of Japan, they were recorded in 外国人登録原票. (if they were recorded, your name should be there.) (I think US soldiers and diplomats were not recorded.)
it is not birth certificate. but there are columns, birth date, birth place, and so on.
if you get an official copy, it can be apostilled.

you can get a copy from here.
http://www.moj.go.jp/hisho/bunsho/hisho02_00016.html
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/info/pdf/121019/youshiki.pdf
but, it is very old information. they might not have it or may take some time to find out.

What is the reason you believe that city office has information ?

Information of what? すみません、おっしゃっていることがわかりません。

Uco - I am sure I could find a fax machine, its just much easier to communicate by email.

As far as covering up the document, its entirely in Japanese and the format is such that its not obvious what to cover and what not to. I will make an attempt, but I really just need to have the whole thing explained to me.

Ken - thanks for the website links. I am not sure how to navigate to what I need on the fist link, and I don't know what the second link leads to.