- Finding People in Japan: Challenges and Solutions
- 1. Public Databases of Living Individuals Don’t Exist
- 2. Other Sources of Information
- 3. Excessive Sense of Confidentiality
- 4. Kanji Characters Name vs Roman Alphabet Name
- 5. Investigation Methods
- 6. Why Heir Search Specialists Don’t Exist in Japan (From a Domestic Perspective)
- 7. Conclusion: Different Approaches for Different Purposes
Finding People in Japan: Challenges and Solutions
In Japan, finding a specific living individual is extremely difficult.
1. Public Databases of Living Individuals Don’t Exist
Unlike in other countries, Japan does not have public databases where you can search for the current addresses or names of living individuals. Integrated public record databases combining vital records, real estate ownership, and address history, electoral rolls, or online people search engines aggregating public information are not made available to the public.
Access to personal public records such as family registers (koseki) and resident records (juminhyo) is restricted.
To obtain a subject’s family register, identifying their permanent domicile (honsekichi) is mandatory. The registered domicile is necessary to identify the local government that manages the family register.
Please note that ‘honsekichi’ is a legal registration location and is different from a residential address.
Also, the resident record (juminhyo), which proves a person’s current address and koseki information, is not made public. Generally, only the person listed on the family register or their relatives can obtain a copy of the koseki and juminhyo.
In other words, Japan does not have a centralized index for vital records (birth, marriage, death) open to third-party searches. You must know the specific municipality where the record is kept to make a request.
2. Other Sources of Information
Telephone directories are obsolete and mostly list elderly or deceased people who have/had a landline phone.
Very few people register their real names on social media. Genealogy information-sharing apps such as FamilySearch are used by very few people in Japan.
If the subject owns real estate, information might be found in the real estate registry. However, if they are a renter, tracing them is almost impossible.
If the subject originates from a rural area, local inquiries might help locate relatives. However, for urban areas, finding relatives without specific data is extremely difficult.
3. Excessive Sense of Confidentiality
Driven by media sensationalism, the general public’s sensitivity regarding personal information privacy has reached an excessive level. In most cases, even ordinary citizens who are under no legal obligation of confidentiality mistakenly believe they are, and will refuse to disclose information.
4. Kanji Characters Name vs Roman Alphabet Name
Do you know the kanji spelling of the person’s name?
Japanese names are normally written in kanji characters.
Even if the pronunciation is the same, there are often multiple corresponding kanji variations. Although the subject has only one specific kanji name, if you only have the subject’s name in the Roman alphabet (romaji), it is necessary to conduct searches using multiple combinations of potential kanji characters.
5. Investigation Methods
(1) If You Know the Current Address
If you know the current address of the person you are investigating, try sending them a letter yourself.
Once you have contacted them, ask them to obtain their family register (koseki), or find out their permanent domicile (honsekichi) and request koseki from the local government where it is located. If the person does not know their registered domicile, have them obtain a copy of resident record with their registered domicile included.
(2) If the Letter Does Not Arrive
If the letter does not arrive (is returned), it is likely that the subject and the family no longer live there.
In that case, we search for the person by researching residential maps, investigating real estate registrations, or sending inquiry letters to people with the same surname. If the person you are investigating is elderly, we may be able to find their address by looking them up in the phone book.
Then find cemeteries and temples near their address or hometown.
(3) Limitations for Foreigners
It is almost impossible for foreigners to use these methods to investigate.
On the other hand, it is extremely easy for Japanese people living in Japan to obtain family registers.
The time it takes to obtain a family register depends on the crowd situation at the counter, but it takes about 30 minutes to an hour, and it’s as easy as filling out a single application form with name, address, permanent domicile, name of the head of the household, and reason for the application (just write “inheritance”).
6. Why Heir Search Specialists Don’t Exist in Japan (From a Domestic Perspective)
Within Japan’s domestic context, investigations into heirs are not carried out unless the heirs are missing—specifically, cases where the heirs know who the others are but can’t contact them because their address is no longer valid or the other heir has disappeared.
In normal inheritance cases among Japanese residents, it is virtually impossible not to know who the heirs are, because any heir can easily obtain the family registers of the deceased and identify all other heirs.
Therefore, there is no demand for professionals who specialize in finding heirs in Japan from a domestic perspective.
However, this situation is entirely different for overseas descendants of Japanese families. When you are outside Japan and need to identify heirs or relatives in Japan, you face all the challenges described in this article—restricted access to public records, language barriers, lack of familiarity with Japanese administrative systems, and the impossibility of conducting local investigations yourself.
7. Conclusion: Different Approaches for Different Purposes
The difficulty of finding people in Japan varies significantly depending on the purpose:
(1) Finding a Specific Individual (e.g., Designated Heir)
For cases where you need to locate one particular person with a specific name and last known address, the challenges outlined above make the investigation extremely difficult, especially for those outside Japan.
This type of investigation requires:
- Precise current address information
- Exact kanji spelling of the name
- Ability to conduct on-the-ground investigations in Japan
- Access to restricted public records
Without these elements, finding a specific individual becomes nearly impossible.
(2) Finding Descendants for Ancestral Research (Broader Scope)
However, when the goal is ancestral research—where you are searching for any living descendants of a particular family line—the approach is different and more feasible:
- The search targets a group rather than a single individual
- Multiple candidates can be investigated simultaneously through area-based inquiries
- In rural areas where families with the same surname cluster together, postal inquiries to households with matching surnames can be effective
- Temple and cemetery research can lead to discovering multiple branches of the family
- Even if some leads fail, others may succeed, increasing overall success rates
- The broader scope allows for flexible investigation strategies
(3) Our Services
While we cannot guarantee finding specific individuals when only limited information is available, our ancestral research services may lead to discovering heirs as part of a broader descendant search.
This approach is particularly effective when:
- The ancestral family originated from a rural area with identifiable community ties
- The surname is relatively uncommon in the region
- Multiple generations can be traced through family registers (koseki)
- There are temples or cemeteries associated with the family
If you are conducting inheritance research and need to identify potential heirs, our ancestral research approach may uncover relatives who can help establish heir relationships. Through systematic investigation of family lines, temple records, and local community networks, we can identify living descendants who may include the heirs you are seeking.
In other words, while we do not offer dedicated “heir search” services (which would require guaranteeing the discovery of specific individuals), our comprehensive ancestral research often achieves similar results by casting a wider net and identifying multiple family members, among whom the heirs may be found.
