Legal Adoption Process
QUESTION
I am married to a Japanese man. Before we got married, I have a two kids already. My Japanese husband legally adopted them in the Philippines so now they are using my husband’s Japanese surname. Is this legal adoption be honored in Japan? Does my husband need to file a Petition of Adoption too in Japan’s Family Court? Can we send or submit to Japan Family Court all the translated (Japanese) Court Decision of Adoption in the Philippines via Japan Embassy in Manila? Can the Family Court recognize the Adoption happened in the Philippines after we submitted the said documents? Can Japan Embassy in Manila help us to this process because we are now in the Philippines? Is there any chance that my kids can reside in Japan? They are now age 15 and 16. And we have another complicated matter that needs your advice. Before the adoption has taken place, my children were registered as his child into my Japanese husband’s koseki tohon with the wrong advice of the lawyer we met. That’s why they are acknowledged by my husband instead of adoption in the koseki-tohon. Can we do something to change the wrong entry in his koseki-tohon including the birth year of my son from 1999 to 2000? We do want legally to be corrected.
– Theresa Suzuki
ANSWER
Will this legal adoption in the Philippines be honored in Japan?
– No, it’s not. Your husband must file it to the Japanese Family Court based on the Japanese Laws. According to the Article-31 of the “Act on General Rules for Application of Laws,” it is specified as follows:
Article 31:
(1) Adoption shall be governed by the national law of an adoptive parent at the time of the adoption. In this case, if obtaining the acceptance or consent from the person to be adopted or a third party, or obtaining permission or any other decision from a public authority is required for adoption under the national law of the person to be adopted, such requirement shall also be satisfied.
(2) The termination of a family relationship between an adopted child and his/her natural relatives by blood and dissolution of adoption shall be governed by the law applicable under the first sentence of the preceding paragraph. Therefore, the father of your children must carry out the procedure of adoption based on the Japanese laws since an adoptive parent is a Japanese. Legally speaking, their father have to perform the procedure of adoption in the Japanese Family Court since your children are minority and foreigner.
Can we send or submit to Japan Family Court all the translated (Japanese) Court Decision of Adoption in the Philippines via Japan Embassy in Manila? Can the Family Court recognize the Adoption happened in the Philippines after we submitted the said documents? Can Japan Embassy in Manila help us to this process?
As I mentioned above, your husband have to file it to the Family Court in Japan. The Japanese Embassy/Court are impossible to accept and recognize it. Besides, the Japanese Embassy cannot help to do it since the Embassy has no right to do it. Because, it regulates in the regulations. Why won’t you ask for it by yourself to the Embassy? Anyway, he has to carry out it in Japan after he would come back to Japan.
Is there any chance that my kids can reside in Japan?
– They are now age 15 and 16. Yes, there is a chance only if your husband can fulfill the criteria. First, he must carry out the adoption based on the Japanese laws through the Family Court in Japan. I think he can do it since he is Japanese, and they have already adopted by him based on the Philippine Law since you quite agreed with his adoption.
Can we do something to change the wrong entry, such as recognition and the birth year of my son in his koseki-tohon?
– It’s impossible for me to answer correctly to your question since I have not confirmed the copy of a family register of your Japanese husband. Then, I would like to explain to you the generalities of your husband’s case as follows based on the contents of the e-mail from you:
1. Penal offense
We can observe that your children are not the child by birth of your Japanese husband. However, he submitted the false cognitive report to the Japanese Embassy in the Philippine (or the municipal office of his domicile address in Japan) for your children who are not his child by birth as “being a child by birth,” then, your children were recorded on his family register as his child by birth.
This corresponds to the 1st clause of Article 157 of a Criminal Code (False entry in officially authenticated instruments), and is supposed to be carried out on the imprisonment of five years or less or the fine of 500,000 yen or less. That is, he is supposed to be punished in principle since he has committed the illegal act.
a. The surrender/report to a police station
Therefore, the first step which he should take is surrender and report his criminal action. He must appear himself at the nearby police station after going back to Japan, and also report having submitted his family register and the false cognitive report.
b. Criminal punishment
The police officer will investigate him as a criminal case and send him to the Public Prosecutor’s Office after that. The Public Prosecutor’s Office will also investigate him based on the documents created by the police officer and file this case to the Criminal Court. As you see, after a judge would have decided his case finally, the Public Prosecutor’s Office will send the judgment copy to a office of his permanent domicile and notify to delete your children’s records on his family register.
c. Correction by the office of his permanent domicile
Then, the office of his permanent domicile will erase/delete all records of your children on his family register based on this notice. Then, his false cognitive report is canceled by this action. Therefore, your two children’s name, birth date, etc. which are recorded on his family register are supposed to be deleted by the office. It doesn’t matter 1999 or 2000.
d. Decision not to prosecute or suspension-of-indictment disposal
When the Public Prosecutor’s Office would have decided a “Decision not to prosecute” or “Suspension-of-indictment disposal” in consideration of the contents of his criminal and etc., in this case, your husband can and must file the following petitions at the nearby Family Court.
2. Petitions to the Family Court
a. Correction of family register
He must file the petition of “Correction of family register” concerning your children to a Family Court in Japan. At that time, you must show the proofs concerning the “Decision not to prosecute” or “Suspension-of-indictment disposal,” which will be issued from the Public Prosecutor’s Office explaining that “I want your authority to delete the records concerning two children on my family register since the cognitive report was accomplished by my error/mistake.” Then, when the Family Court will accept his petition, since the Court will also deliver a “Decision of referee document” concerning to the “Correction of family register,” he should submit this decision to his permanent domicile office, and demand to delete two children’s name, birth date, etc. from his family register.
b. Adoption
He must file his petition of “Adoption of your two children” to the Family Court newly after the office of his permanent domicile would have deleted your two children’s name, etc. on his family register. As it mentioned above (“1”), when a “Decision of referee document” is delivered to him as a result of trial, he must submit the “Decision of referee document” to the office of his permanent domicile in order to fill the matter of “Adoption of two children,” such as name/date of birth and etc., on his family register.
c. Reference
Referring to the contents, which the Japanese Embassy and the Family Court are explaining to you, I am so sorry, it’s impossible to comment to you since I cannot confirm it whether these are correct or not and these are indirectly explained to me without any proof from you.
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