How To Update Your Registered Address On A Japanese Property

What the rule requires, and who it applies to

Under Article 76-5 of the Real Property Registration Act (不動産登記法), a registered owner (所有権の登記名義人) — an individual or a company — whose name or address changes must apply to register that change within two years of the date it happened. This applies to any change: moving within Japan, moving abroad, marrying and changing your legal name, or a company changing its registered name. It does not require a separate trigger like a sale or inheritance — the two-year clock starts on the date of the move or name change itself.

The rule is retroactive. If your address or name changed before April 1, 2026 and the registration record still shows the old one, the deadline is March 31, 2028 — regardless of how long ago the actual change happened.

The penalty, and how it's actually enforced

Filing late without a justifiable reason can result in a fine (過料) of up to ¥50,000, under Article 164, Paragraph 2 of the same Act — half the ¥100,000 maximum that applies to missing the inheritance-registration deadline. In practice, a registrar does not refer a case to the courts the moment a deadline passes: enforcement guidance describes the Legal Affairs Bureau first sending the owner a formal catch-up notice (催告) with a reasonable period to file, and only reporting non-compliance if the owner still doesn't act, without a justifiable reason, once that period runs out.

Smart Change Registration: a free system that can do this for you — but not if you've moved abroad

Alongside the mandatory rule, Japan introduced スマート変更登記 (sumāto henkō tōki, "Smart Change Registration"), a free, opt-in system that has been accepting applications since April 21, 2025. You submit "search-use information" (検索用情報) to a Legal Affairs Bureau in advance — your name, the kana reading, your date of birth, and optionally an email address. From then on, the registrar cross-checks that information against Japan's resident registry network (住基ネット, Juki Net) at least once every two years. If it detects that your address or name has changed, it emails or mails you to confirm before updating the registration on its own authority (職権) — at no registration tax.

This can also cover a backlog: even if you already moved and never registered it, submitting a search-use information request now (giving your current address) can get that past change picked up and corrected. The two things it cannot do are be instant — the Bureau checks periodically, not the moment you move, so don't rely on it if your personal deadline is close — and reach you if you've moved outside Japan. Juki Net only tracks residents registered in Japan, so once you deregister your Japanese residence to move abroad, the Bureau has nothing to check against, and Smart Change Registration will not pick up that move. If you moved overseas, you have to register that change yourself.

If the change is a move overseas: what filing it yourself looks like

Filing your own change-of-address registration follows the same practical shape as filing for the mandatory inheritance registration process, because the same overseas-notarization problem shows up in both: an ordinary registration filing needs proof of your new address, and you can no longer get a 住民票 (certificate of residence) once you've deregistered from a Japanese municipality.

• 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 住民票. Since the registration needs to show the unbroken chain from your last registered Japan address to your current one, ask the consulate for a 在留証明書 covering your address history if you've moved more than once since leaving Japan, rather than only your current address. Getting it generally means appearing in person at the embassy or consulate.
• If you are not a Japanese national but are a registered property owner (a foreign-national spouse who co-owns a property, for example), Japanese embassies and consulates will not normally issue you a 在留証明書. A notary public in your country of residence certifying a sworn statement of your current address is the standard substitute in professional practice — confirm the exact form your judicial scrivener and the receiving Legal Affairs Bureau expect before you get anything notarized.

Either way, this in-person notarization or consular visit is usually the one step that cannot be done remotely. The filing itself can go through a 司法書士 (judicial scrivener) acting under a power of attorney once you have that address proof, so you do not need to fly to Japan just to submit the registration.

Registration tax

Change-of-address and change-of-name registration is taxed as a flat fee rather than a percentage of value: ¥1,000 per registered property, under the Registration and License Tax Act's schedule (登録免許税法 別表第一 一(十四)). Land and a building on it count as two separate properties, so updating both costs ¥2,000. If the change is not really a move at all but the result of your municipality renumbering streets or reorganizing addresses (住居表示の実施), that specific case is exempt from the tax — ask your municipal office for the certificate proving the renumbering rather than assuming the exemption applies automatically. Judicial scrivener fees, if you use one, are separate and market-priced.

A related but separate requirement: a domestic contact for overseas owners

If you are living overseas and are in the process of newly acquiring registered ownership of Japanese property right now — by purchase, inheritance, or gift, rather than updating an address on a property you already own — a related but distinct 2024 reform requires you to state a domestic contact (国内連絡先) as part of that registration. This does not mean you must find and appoint someone: if no suitable contact is available, the application can instead state that no domestic contact exists (国内連絡先となる者がない旨), which satisfies the requirement without naming anyone. That is a separate filing from the address-change registration this guide covers; if it applies to you, raise it with your judicial scrivener alongside whatever registration you are filing.

A practical order to work through this:

1. Check whether your registration record is actually out of date. Use our free lot-number lookup to find the parcel, then order the registration record for ¥1,500 through Japan Property Research. Look at 甲区 (the ownership section) for the address and name currently on file, and compare it against where you live and what your legal name is now.
2. If you're still living in Japan, or moved within Japan, consider Smart Change Registration. Submitting a 検索用情報 request to any Legal Affairs Bureau is free and, once accepted, covers future moves automatically — and can pick up a past move too. It is not instant (checks run at least every two years) and does nothing once you deregister your Japanese residence to move abroad, so don't rely on it if a deadline is close or you're already overseas.
3. If the outdated entry is from a move abroad, plan to file it yourself. Gather proof of your current address — a 在留証明書 from your local Japanese embassy or consulate if you're a Japanese national, covering your address history if you've moved more than once; a notarized sworn statement of address from a notary public in your country of residence if you are not. This is usually the one step that needs an in-person appointment; a judicial scrivener can handle the actual filing under a power of attorney once you have it.
4. Budget for the registration tax. ¥1,000 per registered property (so ¥2,000 for land plus a building), unless the change is purely due to your municipality's address renumbering, in which case ask for the exemption certificate. Add your judicial scrivener's fee if you use one.
5. Mind both deadlines. Going forward, you have two years from the date of any address or name change. For a change that already happened before April 1, 2026 and is still unregistered, the deadline is March 31, 2028, regardless of how long ago the move itself was.
6. Don't assume an outdated address is harmless just because nothing has gone wrong yet. Beyond the ¥50,000 fine for ignoring a formal catch-up notice, an outdated registered address commonly causes real friction later: when you eventually want to sell or mortgage the property, the registered address needs to match your current one before the sale or mortgage registration can go through, which means fixing this retroactively — often under more time pressure — at closing. It can also make you harder for family, a judicial scrivener, or the Legal Affairs Bureau to reach if the property becomes part of an estate later.
7. Don't assume Smart Change Registration is a substitute for filing yourself once you've moved abroad. It relies entirely on Japan's domestic resident registry (住基ネット), which stops tracking you the moment you deregister a Japanese address. An overseas move is the one case the free automatic system cannot handle — it always requires your own filing.

What the registration record can and cannot tell you here:

• What it shows reliably: the address and legal name currently on file for the registered owner, in 甲区. Comparing that against your actual current address and name is how you find out whether you have anything to file at all.
• What it does not show: whether a discrepancy is already "in progress" at the Legal Affairs Bureau (for example, a Smart Change Registration confirmation notice you haven't yet responded to), or whether you're within the two-year window or already past it — you need your own move-in date or the date of your name change for that, since the record shows only the current state, not a change history at a glance.
• How to order it: use our free lot-number lookup to find the parcel, then order the registration record for ¥1,500 through Japan Property Research, delivered by email — useful both to check your own listed address before filing, and afterward to confirm 甲区 now shows the update.
• If you are a buyer rather than the owner: an outdated address on a seller's registration record is common and not itself a red flag about the property — but it does mean the seller will need to complete their own change-of-address registration before the sale's ownership-transfer registration can be filed, so it is worth raising early with the agent or judicial scrivener handling the transaction rather than discovering it at closing.

For a change of registered owner caused by someone's death rather than a move, see How To Check Inherited Property In Japan From Overseas instead — inheritance registration is a related but separate obligation with its own three-year deadline and larger fine. For anything genuinely complicated — a chain of several past moves, an overseas co-owner, or uncertainty about which route applies to you — 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

Do I really have to register this, even though nothing bad has happened in years of not doing it? Yes. Since April 1, 2026, registering a change to your address or name as a property owner is mandatory, not optional, whether the change happened last month or a decade ago. Filing late without a justifiable reason can result in a fine of up to ¥50,000, and in practice it also tends to surface — at a worse moment — when you eventually try to sell or mortgage the property, since the registered address needs to be current for that registration to go through.

What if my address changed years before this became mandatory? The rule applies retroactively. If the change happened before April 1, 2026 and you still haven't registered it, your deadline is March 31, 2028.

Is there really a free way to handle this without filing anything myself? Yes, if you're still a resident of Japan (or move within Japan) — Smart Change Registration (スマート変更登記) is free, and once you submit a "search-use information" request, the Legal Affairs Bureau checks your address against Japan's resident registry periodically and updates your registration itself, with your confirmation. It cannot help with a move overseas, since it depends entirely on the domestic resident registry, which stops covering you once you deregister to leave Japan.

I moved abroad years ago and never registered it. What do I actually need to do? Get proof of your current address — a 在留証明書 from a Japanese embassy or consulate if you're a Japanese national (covering your address history if you've moved more than once since leaving Japan), or a notarized sworn statement of address from a notary public where you live if you're not — then have a judicial scrivener file the change-of-address registration under a power of attorney. The in-person notarization or consular visit is usually the only step you can't do remotely.

How much does this cost? Registration tax is a flat ¥1,000 per registered property (so ¥2,000 if you're updating both land and a building), unless the change is solely due to your municipality renumbering addresses, in which case it's exempt. Judicial scrivener fees are separate and vary by scrivener.

Does this apply to a mortgage or other right registered against the property, not just the ownership record? The mandatory rule specifically targets registered owners (所有権の登記名義人). If you also hold a different registered right — as a mortgagee, for example — that isn't covered by this particular obligation, though keeping any registered contact information current is still good practice.

Is this the same thing as the mandatory inheritance registration rule? No — related reform, separate obligation. Inheritance registration (相続登記) applies when a registered owner has died and ownership needs to pass to their heirs, with its own three-year deadline and up to ¥100,000 fine. This guide covers updating your own address or name while you remain the owner. See How To Check Inherited Property In Japan From Overseas if you're dealing with the inheritance situation instead.

Related guides:

• How To Check Inherited Property In Japan From Overseas
• How To Check Property Ownership In Japan
• How To Read A Japanese Property Registration Record
• How To Order A Japan Property Registration Record In English
• What Is Touki In Japan?
• Japan Property Due Diligence Checklist

• 法務省：住所等変更登記の義務化特設ページ — the mandatory rule, effective April 1, 2026, and its overview — Ministry of Justice
• 法務省：住所等変更登記の義務化について — the two-year filing deadline, the retroactive March 31, 2028 deadline, and the underlying obligation — Ministry of Justice
• The Ministry of Justice: Mandatory Change-of-name Registration and Change-of-address Registration (2026.4.1〜) — English-language overview of the same rule — Ministry of Justice
• 法務局：登記されている住所・氏名に変更があった方へ（住所変更登記・氏名変更登記の申請手続のご案内）— practical filing guidance from the Legal Affairs Bureau — Legal Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Justice
• 法務省：スマート変更登記のご利用方法 — how Smart Change Registration works, the search-use information submission, and the periodic Juki Net cross-check — Ministry of Justice
• 不動産登記法 (Real Property Registration Act), Article 76-5 and Article 164 — the statutory registration obligation and the up-to-¥50,000 penalty — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• 登録免許税法 (Registration and License Tax Act), Schedule 1, Item 1(14) — the flat ¥1,000-per-property registration tax for a change-of-address or change-of-name registration — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• 外務省：在外公館における証明 — 在留証明書 (certificate of residence abroad) issued by Japanese embassies and consulates — Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• 法務省：令和6年4月1日以降にする所有権に関する登記の申請について — the related, separate domestic-contact-person (国内連絡先) requirement for overseas owners newly acquiring registered property, effective April 1, 2024 — Ministry of Justice

A note on scope: the fine amounts and deadlines above reflect the enforcement design described by the Ministry of Justice and reported consistently by practicing judicial scriveners; the specific administrative sequence (a formal catch-up notice before a court referral) is described in professional and Ministry guidance rather than spelled out as a fixed procedural rule in the statute text itself. That a seller's outdated registered address ordinarily needs to be corrected before an ownership-transfer registration can be filed reflects standard registration practice under the Real Property Registration Act rather than a single cited government page. Whether a notarized statement from your country of residence will be accepted in your specific case is a judgment call for the receiving Legal Affairs Bureau and your judicial scrivener, not a fixed rule stated in the sources above — confirm your documents with them before relying on this guide alone, particularly if your situation involves multiple past moves, a co-owned property with an overseas partner, or a corporate registered owner.