How To Check Inherited Property In Japan From Overseas

The property became legally yours the moment the previous owner died — registering it is a separate, now-mandatory step

Under Japanese civil law, ownership of real estate passes to the heirs automatically at the moment the previous owner dies. Updating the official registration record to reflect that — 相続登記 — is a distinct filing at the local Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局), and for decades it was optional. Many families, especially for rural land, older houses, and low-value parcels, never got around to it, leaving the registered owner listed as someone who died years or decades ago.

This changed with an amendment to the Real Property Registration Act (不動産登記法), Article 76-2, which took effect April 1, 2024. Heirs are now required to register real estate they inherit within three years of learning both that the inheritance occurred and that they acquired ownership of the property. Filing without a justifiable reason after that window can result in a fine (過料) of up to ¥100,000. The rule applies retroactively: if you already knew about an inheritance before April 1, 2024 and have not registered it, your deadline is March 31, 2027, or three years from when you learned of it, whichever is later.

If you can't finish full registration in time, there is a simplified interim filing

Alongside the mandatory rule, Japan introduced 相続人申告登記 (souzoku-nin shinkoku touki, "heir report registration") — a simplified notification that one heir can file individually, without needing the other heirs to agree or cooperate, informing the Legal Affairs Bureau that an inheritance has occurred and that you are one of the heirs. It requires no seal or electronic signature and can be filed online. Filing it satisfies your personal registration obligation and avoids the fine, even while the full inheritance registration is still being worked out among the heirs.

It is not a substitute for finishing the job. 相続人申告登記 does not transfer registered ownership to you, and it does not let you sell, mortgage, or otherwise deal with the property — you still need to complete full 相続登記 before you can do any of that. It also does not end your obligations: under Article 76-3(4) of the same Act, once you and the other heirs later reach a 遺産分割 (division) agreement, you must file the full inheritance registration reflecting that division within three years of the division date, or the same fine can apply. Do not treat 相続人申告登記 as a reason to let the matter sit indefinitely just because you have no immediate plan to sell — the deadline on finishing the job restarts once the estate is divided.

What actually changes about the paperwork because you live outside Japan

If you moved abroad and deregistered your Japanese residence, you will not have a current 住民票 (certificate of residence) on file, which an ordinary registration filing needs as address proof for the new registered owner — regardless of how the property is divided. You will separately need a certified signature in place of an 印鑑証明書 (registered seal certificate) only if the filing itself requires one: whenever multiple heirs are signing a 遺産分割協議書 (division agreement) at all — including one that simply assigns specific parcels to specific heirs while keeping the overall value in line with statutory shares, not only an agreement that changes the value split itself. A single heir, or heirs registering under undivided statutory co-ownership (法定相続分による共有) or a will's direct instructions with no division agreement, generally does not need a seal certificate at all — check with your judicial scrivener which applies to your case before assuming you need one.

What replaces these documents depends on your own nationality, since Japanese embassies and consulates generally only provide the relevant consular services to Japanese nationals:

• If you are a Japanese national: a 在留証明書 (a certificate of residence abroad), issued by a Japanese embassy or consulate on presentation of your passport and proof of your current foreign address, substitutes for the resident register. If your filing needs a certified signature, a 署名証明書 (a signature certificate) from the same embassy or consulate substitutes for the seal certificate. It comes in two formats: one where the consular officer binds the certificate to the document you sign in front of them, and one that certifies a signature as a standalone document. Getting either document generally means appearing in person at the embassy or consulate.
• If you are not a Japanese national (a foreign-national spouse, child, or other legal heir, for example), a Japanese embassy or consulate will not normally issue you either document. Instead, a notary public in your country of residence certifies a sworn statement of your address in place of the resident register, and, if your filing needs one, certifies your signature in place of the seal certificate. Confirm the exact form your judicial scrivener and the receiving Legal Affairs Bureau expect before you get anything notarized, since requirements can vary by case, and build in extra time: this route commonly takes longer than the embassy route.

Whichever route applies to you, this in-person notarization or consular visit is usually the one step in the whole process that cannot be done remotely. Everything else can go through a 司法書士 (judicial scrivener) acting under a power of attorney, so you do not need to fly to Japan to file the registration itself.

Gathering the koseki records that prove who the legal heirs are

Registering an inheritance requires the deceased's continuous koseki (family register) from birth to death, plus koseki for each heir, to establish the full family tree and confirm nobody has been missed. From overseas, you request these by mail from the municipal office of the relevant 本籍地 (registered domicile) — most municipalities accept a request form, a fee paid by international or fixed-amount postal money order, a copy of identification such as your passport, and a return envelope with return postage. Processing from abroad typically takes a few weeks.

One shortcut does not apply to you here: since March 1, 2024, Japan's koseki "wide-area issuance" system (広域交付) lets a requester collect koseki at any municipal counter instead of visiting or writing to each 本籍地 separately — but only in person, with the requester physically at the counter. Mail requests, online requests, and requests by a proxy or professional acting on your behalf are all excluded from this system. Heirs living overseas still request each koseki the traditional way, by mail, one municipal office at a time.

This section assumes you are a Japanese national with a 本籍地 to request koseki from. If you are a legal heir but not a Japanese national — a foreign-national spouse or child, for example — you will not have your own koseki, and you use your country's equivalent civil-status documents instead: typically your birth certificate and, where relevant, marriage certificate, establishing your relationship to the deceased, along with a certified Japanese translation. The deceased's own koseki is still needed to establish the family tree on the Japanese side. Confirm with your judicial scrivener exactly which documents the receiving Legal Affairs Bureau will accept for your specific relationship, since this varies by case.

Finding out exactly what you inherited, and whether it is still registered to the deceased

Family knowledge of what was inherited is often vague — an old house, "some land near the family home" — without a lot number or clear boundaries, and without certainty about whether the deceased owned property in more than one municipality. Since February 2, 2026, the most complete way to check is Japan's 所有不動産記録証明制度 (Certificate of Recorded Real Estate Owned): a heir can request, from any Legal Affairs Bureau nationwide — online, by mail, or in person — a certificate listing every parcel registered nationwide under a name and address you supply. The fee is ¥1,600 per search request on paper, ¥1,500 if requested online with delivery by mail, or ¥1,470 if requested online for pickup at a counter; heirs can request it with proof of the death and their relationship to the deceased.

The search only matches the exact name and address you give it, so it can miss property registered under an old address from before the deceased's last move, a maiden name, or a differently written form of their name — nationwide scope does not make one search exhaustive. A 戸籍の附票 (a record of addresses held while a given koseki was in effect) only covers addresses from that municipal office; if the deceased ever transferred their 本籍地 (転籍) to a different municipality, older addresses live in the closed 附票 (附票の除票) still held by each former 本籍地's office, not the current one. Request the 附票 from every 本籍地 the deceased is known to have held, not just the most recent, and submit each known past address and name variant as an additional search condition — but note that closed records from before June 19, 2014 may no longer exist, since the retention period was only extended to 150 years by a 2019 reform after that date, so reconcile with other sources (old mail, family records, tax notices) as well rather than relying on 附票 alone.

The older, municipality-level alternative is a 名寄帳 (nayose-chō), requested from a specific municipality's property tax division (資産税課, or the metropolitan tax office for Tokyo's 23 wards): a list of parcels registered within that municipality only, as of January 1 of the relevant year, compiled from the property tax ledger rather than the registry itself. It is useful when you already know which municipality to check, but do not treat it as an exhaustive ownership search: it will not show property outside that municipality, some tax-exempt parcels are omitted by some municipalities' practices, and the January 1 snapshot will not reflect anything that changed since. Heirs can request one by mail with proof of the death and their relationship to the deceased (koseki), for a modest fee that varies by municipality; a separate request is needed for each municipality you check.

Once you have an address or lot number — from a 名寄帳, an old fixed asset tax notice, or family paperwork — use our free lot-number lookup to find the likely parcel. The tool resolves the address to a reference point and returns whichever parcel contains it, so treat the result as a starting point rather than a confirmed match. Order the land registration record (and the building record separately, if there is a structure) for ¥1,500 each through Japan Property Research, and check the legal description on the record — the lot number, area, and any building details — against the 名寄帳 or tax notice before you rely on it. The registered owner shown in 甲区 will usually still be the deceased, or an earlier ancestor if the property was never registered forward even before that — confirming this is a case of 相続未登記 (unregistered inheritance) and that the clock on your own registration obligation is running.

Registration tax and other costs

The standard registration tax for inheritance registration is 0.4% (1000分の4) of the property's fixed asset tax assessed value, under the Registration and License Tax Act's schedule for transfers by inheritance — calculated on the assessed value rounded down to the nearest ¥1,000, with the resulting tax rounded down to the nearest ¥100. If that calculation comes out below ¥1,000, the minimum registration tax of ¥1,000 applies instead — worth noting because the land exemption below does not apply to buildings, so even a low-value building's calculated tax can be rounded up to this ¥1,000 floor. A separate, time-limited exemption removes the tax entirely for land valued at ¥1,000,000 or less; it has been extended and currently runs through March 31, 2027. Judicial scrivener fees are market-priced and vary with how many heirs and parcels are involved, so get a quote once your situation is clear rather than assuming a fixed figure.

Here is a practical order to work through this from overseas:

1. Confirm what you actually inherited before assuming there is nothing to do. Request a 所有不動産記録証明書 from any Legal Affairs Bureau (online, by mail, or in person) to get a single nationwide list of everything registered to the deceased, for ¥1,500–1,600 depending on how you request it. Gather any fixed asset tax notices addressed to the deceased too, and if you already know which municipality to check, a 名寄帳 from that municipality's property tax division is a useful supplement — but remember it only covers that one municipality and is not a complete substitute for the nationwide certificate.
2. Identify the parcel and check its current registration status. Use our free lot-number lookup with the address from the 所有不動産記録証明書, 名寄帳, or tax notice — it resolves to a reference point and returns whichever parcel contains it, so treat the result as a starting point, not a confirmed match. Order the registration record for ¥1,500 and check its legal description against your source document; the currently registered owner shown in 甲区 confirms whether the property is still registered to the deceased (or an earlier generation) and gives you the exact legal description you will need for the filing.
3. Gather the documents proving who the legal heirs are. If you are a Japanese national, request the deceased's continuous koseki from birth to death, plus your own, by mail from the municipal office of each relevant 本籍地 — the 2024 wide-area koseki system will not help you from overseas, since it requires appearing in person at a municipal counter in Japan, so budget a few weeks per mailed request. If you are a legal heir but not a Japanese national, you will need your own birth and marriage certificates (with certified Japanese translations) in place of koseki, alongside the deceased's koseki to establish the Japanese side of the family tree.
4. Get a certified signature and address proof, if your filing needs them. An address certificate is needed regardless of how the estate is divided; a certified signature is only needed if there will be a 遺産分割協議書 among multiple heirs — check with your judicial scrivener which applies to you. If you are a Japanese national, a 署名証明書 and 在留証明書 from your local Japanese embassy or consulate substitute for the 印鑑証明書 and 住民票 you can no longer obtain domestically. If you are not a Japanese national, embassies and consulates generally will not issue these to you — instead, a notary public in your country of residence certifies your signature and a sworn statement of your address; check with your judicial scrivener on the exact form expected first. Either way, this is usually the one step you cannot complete remotely.
5. Decide whether you can finish full 相続登記 before your three-year deadline. If you can, a 司法書士 acting under a power of attorney can prepare and file the registration once the heir documents and any required agreement among multiple heirs (遺産分割協議) are in place, without you traveling to Japan. If the deadline is close and the heirs are still sorting things out, file 相続人申告登記 instead — one heir can do this individually, satisfying the legal obligation while the fuller registration continues. Once the heirs do reach a division agreement, a second three-year deadline starts running from that agreement's date, so do not treat the interim filing as the end of the matter just because you have no immediate plan to sell.
6. Budget for registration tax and professional fees. The standard registration tax is 0.4% of the fixed asset tax assessed value, with a ¥1,000 minimum if that calculation comes out lower — relevant for a low-value building, since the exemption below applies only to land. Land valued at ¥1,000,000 or less is currently exempt under a measure running through March 31, 2027. Ask your judicial scrivener for a fee quote once the number of heirs and parcels is clear.
7. Order a fresh registration record once filing is confirmed. After your 司法書士 confirms the registration is complete, order a new ¥1,500 record to confirm 甲区 now shows your name — or, if there are multiple heirs, each co-heir's name together with their ownership share (持分) — before deciding whether to keep, sell, or rent the property.

The most common mistake is assuming that living abroad and not reading Japanese fluently means there is nothing practical you can do, and letting the deadline pass by default. Every step above has a mail-based or remote path except the in-person visit to get your address certification (and signature certification, if your filing needs one). The second common mistake is treating 相続人申告登記 as though it finishes the job — it satisfies your personal filing obligation, but it does not transfer registered title, and a new three-year deadline to complete full 相続登記 starts once the heirs agree on a division, so it is not a reason to stop paying attention to the matter.

What the registration record can and cannot tell you here:

• What it shows reliably: the currently registered owner's name in 甲区, confirming whether the property is still registered to the deceased or an earlier ancestor (相続未登記), and the official legal description of the land or building. Any mortgage or other right recorded in 乙区 is worth investigating — check with the lender what is still owed and whether it was discharged (for example, by mortgage life insurance paying it off at death) — but it does not need to be resolved to complete the inheritance registration itself; a mortgage ordinarily carries over to the heir and only needs a separate discharge filing if you plan to sell, refinance, or it has already been paid off.
• What it does not show: who the legal heirs are, whether they agree on how to divide the property, or how far along an in-progress registration filing is. Those live in the koseki records and in communication with the heirs and the judicial scrivener handling the filing, not in the registration record itself.
• How to order it: use our free lot-number lookup to find the likely parcel by address or lot number — it returns whichever parcel contains the address's reference point, so treat it as a starting point and confirm the legal description against a 所有不動産記録証明書 or 名寄帳 — then order the land registration record for ¥1,500 through Japan Property Research, and the building record separately, also ¥1,500, if there is a structure on the land. Both are delivered by email and saved to your account, so you can share them with a judicial scrivener without needing to visit Japan.
• A note on finding what to order in the first place: the registration record and the lot-number lookup work per parcel, once you already know roughly where to look. The 所有不動産記録証明制度 (nationwide, from any Legal Affairs Bureau) and, as a municipality-level supplement, the 名寄帳, are what tell you which parcels exist to look up in the first place — a 名寄帳 alone will miss property outside that one municipality.

This guide covers identifying and confirming a property you already believe you inherited, and understanding your own registration obligation as an heir. For the general rule from a buyer's perspective — checking whether a listing you want to purchase has an unresolved inheritance — see How To Check If A Japanese Property Has Unregistered Inheritance. For situations genuinely complicated by multiple heirs, disputes, or unclear family history, confirm your specific steps with the Legal Affairs Bureau or a judicial scrivener (司法書士) rather than relying on general guidance alone.

FAQ

Am I required to register a property I inherited even if I live outside Japan? Yes. Living abroad does not change the requirement. Since April 1, 2024, anyone who inherits Japanese real estate must register it within three years of learning of the inheritance and their ownership, or risk a fine of up to ¥100,000 without a valid reason.

What if I inherited the property years before the 2024 law took effect? The rule applies retroactively. If you already knew about the inheritance before April 1, 2024 and have not registered it, your deadline is March 31, 2027, or three years from when you learned of it, whichever is later.

Do I have to travel to Japan to register inherited property? Not for the filing itself — a judicial scrivener can file under a power of attorney. Getting your address certification generally does require appearing in person — at a Japanese embassy or consulate if you are a Japanese national, or before a notary public in your country of residence if you are not — and if your filing also needs a certified signature (typically because multiple heirs are signing a division agreement), that is usually obtained at the same appointment.

Do I always need a seal certificate (印鑑証明書) or its overseas equivalent? No. It is generally needed only when the registration is based on a 遺産分割協議書 (a division agreement among multiple heirs) — including one that simply assigns specific parcels to specific heirs while the overall value still lines up with statutory shares, not only an agreement that changes the value split — since that document needs a certified signature from each heir. A sole heir, or heirs registering under undivided statutory co-ownership or a will's direct instructions with no division agreement, generally does not need one — an address certificate is still needed either way.

What if I'm a legal heir but not a Japanese national myself? You will not have your own koseki or access to Japanese embassy signature and residence certificates, both of which are generally limited to Japanese nationals. Use your own country's birth and marriage certificates (with certified Japanese translations) to establish your relationship to the deceased, and a local notary public to certify your signature and address instead — confirm the exact documents with your judicial scrivener, since this route commonly takes longer.

What if I can't finish the registration before my deadline because other heirs haven't agreed yet? File 相続人申告登記 (heir report registration). One heir can do this individually, without the others' agreement, to satisfy the registration obligation while the full inheritance registration is worked out. It does not transfer title, so you still need full 相続登記 before you can sell or mortgage the property.

Once I file 相続人申告登記, is there still a deadline for finishing the full registration? Yes, a new one. Under Article 76-3(4) of the Real Property Registration Act, once you and the other heirs reach a 遺産分割 (division) agreement, you must file the full inheritance registration reflecting it within three years of the agreement's date, with the same fine for missing it. Filing 相続人申告登記 buys time to sort out the division; it does not remove the eventual deadline to finish registering.

I'm not sure what my parent or grandparent even owned. How do I find out? Since February 2026, request a 所有不動産記録証明書 from any Legal Affairs Bureau — it searches nationwide for parcels registered under a name and address you supply, for ¥1,500–1,600. Because it only matches the exact name and address given, get a 戸籍の附票 (an address history) from every 本籍地 the deceased ever held, not just the most recent one — a former honseki's closed 附票 (除票) can hold older addresses the current one doesn't — and submit those past addresses and name variants too, or you can miss property registered under an old address or name. A 名寄帳 from a specific municipality's property tax division is a useful supplement once you know where to look, but it only covers that one municipality and can miss some tax-exempt parcels. Old fixed asset tax notices addressed to them are another good starting point.

Related guides:

• How To Check If A Japanese Property Has Unregistered Inheritance
• How To Check Property Ownership In Japan
• How To Order A Japan Property Registration Record In English
• How To Read A Japanese Property Registration Record
• How To Find A Lot Number In Japan
• Japan Property Tax Guide
• Japan Property Due Diligence Checklist

• 法務省：相続登記の申請義務化について — the April 1, 2024 effective date, the three-year deadline, and the retroactive March 31, 2027 deadline for earlier inheritances — Ministry of Justice
• 法務省：相続登記の申請義務化に関するQ&A — the ¥100,000 fine for filing without justifiable reason — Ministry of Justice
• 法務省：相続人申告登記について — the simplified interim filing, its unilateral filing by one heir, and its limits — Ministry of Justice
• 不動産登記法 (Real Property Registration Act), Articles 76-2 and 76-3(4) — the statutory registration obligation and penalty, and the separate three-year deadline to complete registration after a later division agreement — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• 法務省：外国に居住しているため印鑑証明書を取得することができない場合の取扱いについて — the signature certificate (署名証明) substituting for the seal certificate — Ministry of Justice
• 外務省：在外公館における証明 — signature certificates and certificates of residence issued by Japanese embassies and consulates — Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• 法務省：戸籍法の一部を改正する法律について（令和6年3月1日施行）— the koseki wide-area issuance system and its in-person, non-mail, non-proxy requirement — Ministry of Justice
• 法務省：所有不動産記録証明制度について — the nationwide Certificate of Recorded Real Estate Owned, effective February 2, 2026, who can request it, and its fees — Ministry of Justice
• 国税庁 No.7191 登録免許税の税額表 — the 0.4% (1000分の4) registration tax rate for inheritance transfers, and the ¥1,000 minimum tax — National Tax Agency
• 相続登記の免税措置について（例：千葉地方法務局）— the exemption for land valued at ¥1,000,000 or less, currently running through March 31, 2027 — Chiba Legal Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Justice
• 住民票及び戸籍の附票等について — the 2019 reform extending the retention period for closed 戸籍の附票 records to 150 years, and that records disposed of before the reform under the old 5-year rule cannot be recovered — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

A note on scope: municipal procedures for requesting koseki records and a 名寄帳 (nayose-chō) — required documents, fees, and processing time — vary by municipality; confirm the specific requirements with the relevant city, ward, or town office before mailing a request. Judicial scrivener fees are market-priced and not set by any of the sources above. The sources on signature and residence certificates above cover Japanese nationals abroad specifically; the alternative route for non-Japanese heirs (notarization and civil-status documents from their country of residence) is common professional practice rather than a single government-published procedure, so confirm the exact documents your judicial scrivener and receiving Legal Affairs Bureau expect. Whether a specific filing needs a certified signature (as opposed to only address proof) depends on the division method used and is a case-by-case determination your judicial scrivener should confirm, not a fixed rule stated in the sources above. The practical advice on searching multiple past addresses and name variants on a 所有不動産記録証明書 request, and obtaining a 戸籍の附票 (including closed records from former 本籍地) to do so, reflects common professional practice rather than a specific government-published procedure. That a mortgage survives an inheritance registration without needing separate discharge, and that a completed inheritance registration names the heir or co-heirs with their ownership shares rather than an abstract "estate," reflect ordinary registration practice under the Real Property Registration Act rather than a single cited government page — confirm your specific case with a judicial scrivener. For an inheritance complicated by multiple heirs, disputes, or unclear family history, confirm your specific situation with the Legal Affairs Bureau or a judicial scrivener (司法書士) rather than relying on this guide alone.