Japanese Police Check Translation for Australia

Who issues a police clearance certificate in Japan

The 犯罪経歴証明書 is issued by the prefectural police headquarters, or through a Japanese embassy or consulate for applicants outside Japan, and is supplied in a sealed envelope. The Consulate-General of Japan in Brisbane states that the certificate is written in Japanese, English, French, German and Spanish, and that the envelope should not be opened without the permission of the organisation receiving it ([brisbane.au.emb-japan.go.jp](https://www.brisbane.au.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/visa_police_certificate.html)). Check with your case officer before opening it, and before ordering a translation you may not need.

Japanese civil status is not recorded as individual certificates but in the 戸籍 (koseki) family register held by the municipal office of the registered domicile (本籍). A 戸籍謄本 is a full transcript of that register; a 戸籍抄本 is an extract for one person. Single-event certificates such as 出生届受理証明書 (acceptance of birth notification) and 婚姻届受理証明書 (acceptance of marriage notification) are issued separately, and residence facts come from the 住民票 (juminhyo). Documents are printed on A4 municipal forms with a vertical or horizontal ruled layout.

What your certified English translation reproduces

Every certified translation we issue is a complete rendering of the source document — not a summary. For a Japanese police clearance certificate that means:

• Applicant's full name, date and place of birth and identity document number
• The issuing authority, reference number and the date the search was run
• The scope of the search — national register, period covered and any regional limitation
• The result statement, translated literally rather than paraphrased as 'clear'
• Any recorded conviction with its statutory reference and sentence
• Validity period, seal, signature and any verification code or QR reference

Japanese names, dates and script

Japanese names are written family name first in kanji, with a furigana reading that is often the only guide to pronunciation, while passports carry a Hepburn romanisation that may differ from the reading a family actually uses. Dates on Japanese official documents use the imperial era system — Reiwa, Heisei, Showa and occasionally Taisho — so 平成7年3月2日 must be rendered as 2 March 1995 with the era form retained. Where the kanji entry and the passport spelling do not match, flag it with your order and check what supporting evidence the receiving organisation asks for.

Seals, stamps and legalisation

Japanese documents may carry a registered 印鑑 (hanko) seal or a municipal seal rather than a handwritten signature. Older koseki entries can be handwritten in vertical columns with strike-throughs marking removals from the register, and those annotations form part of the record. We reproduce the seals, annotations and any authentication actually present; check the receiving organisation's current instructions before arranging any separate authentication step.

How Australian agencies read this document

Australian organisations use the translation to read the issuing authority, the scope of the search and the result statement exactly as recorded. Requirements vary by organisation and by application — check the receiving organisation's current instructions for which certificate it needs and how recent it must be.

Commonly requested alongside visa, registration and employment applications. Check the current document and translation checklist published by the organisation you are submitting to.

What we check before certifying

Most delays are caused by the source document, not the translation. These are the issues we look for on Japanese police clearance certificates and raise with you before the file is certified:

• Ordering a 戸籍抄本 extract when the application needs the full 戸籍謄本 transcript showing every family member and every annotated change
• Era dates read as Gregorian years, which shifts a date of birth or marriage by decades if Reiwa, Heisei or Showa is left unconverted
• A Hepburn passport spelling that does not match the kanji name in the koseki, with nothing supplied to link them
• Struck-through koseki entries omitted as if they were errors, when a removal line is what evidences a prior marriage, adoption or change of domicile
• Only part of the document supplied, so headers, footers, seals or reference details are missing
• A local or municipal clearance obtained where the receiving organisation asked for a national-level certificate
• A result phrase that means 'no entry found in this register' being loosely rendered as 'no criminal record', which overstates the search scope

Pages, pricing and turnaround

Police certificates are charged at $59 per page, with under 24-hour delivery as standard.