Koseki Tohon Translation: Japanese Family Register

No — what has to be certified is the translation, not the translator. The United States keeps no register of licensed or court-appointed translators, so there is no credential to hold. 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) asks for a full English translation, plus the translator’s signed statement that it is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from Japanese. That signed statement is what you are buying, and it comes with every order.

Yes, when the translation is complete and carries a signed certification. Officers compare names, dates, and relationships against the rest of your packet, so the register has to be rendered in full rather than summarised. Ours are prepared to the AcceptReady™ standard we publish, and if a translation-related correction is ever requested, we revise it free.

It is Japan’s family register — a municipal record of one family unit rather than one life event. A single register can hold births, marriages, divorces, adoptions, deaths, and removals across more than one generation, which is why no single US document matches it.

The tohon is the whole register; the shohon covers one person on it. If what you are proving is a relationship — that someone is your parent, your child, or your spouse — the single-person extract leaves out the entries that show it.

Most are one or two. Households that have grown, moved their honseki, or been rewritten in a legal revision run longer, and inheritance chains can reach five pages or more once closed registers are included.

We keep the date as printed and set the Western year beside it. A reader who checks the translation against the original finds the same characters in the same place, and a reader who needs a calendar year has it without doing the arithmetic.

It is $24.95 per physical page, so a one-page register is $24.95 and a two-page register is $49.90. Pages are counted as issued — a dense register page is still one page, because we do not bill by word count.

We use the spelling on your passport, and we say in a translator’s note where it came from. Since 26 May 2025 a register also records the phonetic reading of each name, so newer certificates may carry a reading we can cite directly.

Yes, and they matter more than they look. The registrar’s certification line and the office seal are what make the copy official, so a translation that stops above them leaves out the part that proves the document is genuine.

Yes, if every character is readable and the page edges are in frame. Lay the certificate flat, avoid shadow across the columns, and take one photo per page rather than one of the open document.

Usually not for USCIS, which asks for certification rather than a notary. Some courts, consulates, and foreign registries do ask, and notarization is a separate step we add for $19.95 per order when you need it.

Typically within 24 hours for a register of one or two pages. Rush and Super Rush are available if a filing deadline is closer than that, and you will see the delivery time before you pay.

Four things, and you can check all four yourself. Compare any line of the original koseki tohon with the translation, including the text inside stamps. Put the two documents side by side — same page count, same order, tables and stamps in the same places. Read the Certificate of Accuracy for the complete-and-accurate statement, the competence statement, the signature, date, and company stamp. Then confirm the wording matches what your receiving office publishes. Those four checks are the AcceptReady™ standard, and CertTranslate publishes it in full. Read the AcceptReady™ standard.