Marriage in Japan
The following documents must be submitted to the representative office:
Japanese National
- Valid Passport
- Certificate of residence (Juminhyou 住民票)
- Japanese family register extract (Koseki Touhon [Zenbu Jikou Shoumei] 戸籍謄本全部事項証明)
- Marriage eligibility certificate (Youken Gubi Shoumeisho 婚姻要件具備証明書)
- If divorced, additionally: divorce decree (Rikon Todoke no Juri Shoumeisho 離婚届受理証明書) or family register excerpt, from which the legally effective divorce date can be seen.
- If widowed, additionally: death certificate of the former spouse (Shibou Todoke no Juri Shoumeisho 死亡届受理証明書) or family register extract in which the death of the spouse is recorded.
Swiss National
- Valid passport
- Certificate of residence (Juminhyou 住民票). If this confirmation is missing, the representation can issue a nationality and matriculation confirmation instead of this document (CHF 40.- in JPY), which is subject to a fee.
- Civil Status Certificate (GE: Personenstandsausweis /FR: Certificat individuel d´état civil). If this document is missing, the civil status certificate can be ordered online from your home municipality for a fee.
The documents need to be issued within the last 6 months and must be submitted in advance scanned by e-mail to tokyo.kanzlei@eda.admin.ch for verification. Subsequently, an appointment will be made for the counter visit. The Japanese documents will be summarily translated by the Embassy and sent to the relevant civil registry office in Switzerland for further processing. It will take approximately 2 - 3 months until the certificate of capacity to marry is issued.
Attention: All Japanese documents must be apostilled (The Hague Convention of October 5, 1961). The apostille is issued free of charge by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Certification at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Japan) (Authentication (of official seals) / Apostille).
An advance payment of JPY 70'000 - 80'000 is required. You will receive a detailed invoice with the marriage certificate.
After the marriage, please send or bring an original marriage certificate (Konin Todoke Jurishoumeisho), in case of family name change additionally an original name change certificate (Uji Henko Todoke Jurishoumeisho) from the embassy, so that the marriage can be registered in Switzerland. If there is no name change, please indicate this as well. All Japanese documents must be apostilled by MOFA.
