How do you register your address in Japan in 2026?

Go to the municipal office for the address where you now live. In Japanese administration, shi, ku, cho, and son mean city, ward, town, and village. In Tokyo's 23 wards, the ward office usually handles this.

If you are a mid-to-long-term resident, the standard filing is a moving-in notification. You may hear tennyu todoke, which means a moving-in notice after arriving from another municipality or from overseas. Official guides checked for July 2026 say you should file within 14 days after your residence is determined or after you start living at the new address. You cannot register a hotel booking, an Airbnb plan, or a future apartment you have not moved into yet as if it were your settled home.

Do not confuse airport arrival with municipal registration. If you entered through a major airport and already received your residence card there, you still need the local office step later so your address can be recorded. If you entered through another port and were told the card would be issued later, the municipality filing is what triggers the next part of that process.

Bring your residence card if you already have it. If your residence card will be issued later, bring the passport showing that status. Municipal pages also commonly ask for your passport, the moving-in form completed at the office, and documents that help prove the household setup when relevant. If a whole foreign family registers together, a municipality may ask for marriage or birth records with Japanese translations to confirm the relationship between household members.

After the filing, the municipality creates your resident record. The document people usually ask for later is the juminhyo, which is the resident record certificate. It is not the same thing as the residence card. The juminhyo is a municipal record showing your address and household details. The residence card is the national immigration ID card for mid-to-long-term foreign residents.

If you already hold a residence card, the municipality also records your address on that card or in the connected record system. Check the spelling of your name, birth date, and address carefully before you leave. Small differences in room numbers, romanization, or household composition can create friction later with a bank, mobile carrier, or employer.

Later moves are another municipal process, not just a private change with your landlord. If you move from one city to another, you normally handle a move-out at the old municipality and a move-in at the new one. If you move within the same municipality, you usually file a change of address instead. The exact route depends on the move, but the rule stays the same: Japan expects the address on your public record to match where you actually live.

That is why choosing an area in Where to live in Japan is not only a lifestyle choice. It also sets the office that will manage your first resident registration, National Health Insurance if you need it, and many later notices. If you are deciding between bases like Tokyo vs Osaka, remember that ward offices in bigger cities can have different appointment systems, language support, and crowd levels even when the legal rule is national.