ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contemporary situation for mukosekisha and mukokusekisha in Japanese society. It also examines Japan's family registration and nationality systems from the position of the mukosekisha and mukokusekisha. In Japan the family registration system is described as 'an authentic record of a person's kinship ties from birth until death which establishes a person as a Japanese national and is the sole system for authenticating Japanese nationality'. The postwar Japanese government's processing of nationality that led to Koreans and Taiwanese being legally positioned as foreigners was dependent on the koseki. The South Korean Embassy suggested he register as South Korean and change his alien registration in Japan in order to obtain a South Korean passport and travel to Cheju. In Japan the nationality and family registration systems and their processes need to be matched with the present and with changing societal values.
