Hello, this is Iwaya of IMS Legal Professional Corporation. Recently, I’ve been interested in observing how the Japanese government will decide on the introduction of the “Vaccination Passport” for the Residence Track and Business Track, which were temporarily in operation in 2020 as a brief attempt to resume international human traffic. In addition, since the IATA Travel Pass: Digital Health Passport is currently being introduced by some airlines on a trial basis, we will be watching for its further introduction in the future.
Last week, we received many client inquiries and requests. In today’s blog post, I would like to feature and explain one of the inquiries that we received.
Passport Certification
This time, we received an inquiry from a subsidiary company in Singapore that had been required by a local bank have the passport of their parent company’s president certified in order to open an account.
There are, in fact, many cases like this one where Japanese nationals are required to have their passports certified when opening bank accounts in foreign countries.
What is passport certification?
Passport certification can be completed by an "administrative scrivener", which is a legal professional that is nationally licensed by Japan. This is carried out through the preparation of documents related to fact certification as described by the Administrative Scrivener Act. In this case, an administrative scrivener will provide a document that certifies that the copy of the passport is authentic. However, some foreign institutions may require a copy that is certified by a notary public at a notary public office in Japan, a consular officer at the embassy of the relevant country in Japan, or an apostille (consular certification and apostille will be discussed in detail later in this post), rather than an administrative scrivener. Please be sure to check with the relevant institution beforehand to find out what is required.
However, although it is possible to have your passport certified by a notary public at a notary public's office, please be aware that in principle, this is to certify the signature and seal on the separately attached declaration pertaining to the passport copy, and may not qualify as a "passport copy certificate".
Other Kinds of Certification
In addition to the above, there exist consular certification and apostille, which I will briefly explain here as well.
For example, in most cases, documents issued in Japan (official documents and private documents) will not be accepted as is when submitted to a foreign organization/institution. The reason for this is that it is very difficult for foreign institutions to determine the authenticity of the document. This is why they require documents that have been certified by an administrative scrivener, consular officer, or apostille as described above.
Which do I need?
Whether an apostille or consular certification is needed depends on whether the country to which the document is to be submitted is a signatory to the Hague Convention.
Apostille certification
Apostille is a certification by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan which can only be used between countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention. Signatories of this treaty do not require other types of certification of legal documents if said document is to be submitted to another signatory country. Please see below for the countries that have signed the Hague Convention.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/toko/page22_000610.html
If you obtain an apostille, you can use it in the destination country in the same way as one would consular certification from the embassy or consulate in Japan.
Consular Certification
Consular certification is an authentication of a document by a consular officer of the embassy or consulate of the relevant country in Japan. Documents issued by public institutions in Japan must receive an official seal verification by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and private documents must be certified by a notary public at a notary public's office in Japan and have the official seal verified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan before being submitted to the respective embassies/consulates in Japan for consular certification.
As described above, the procedure varies depending on whether the document is an official document or a private document, and whether it requires consular certification or an apostille. If you have any questions about the procedures, please do not hesitate to contact us.
For more information
We, at IMS, offer passport certification services by administrative scriveners as well as apostille and consular certification agent services at embassies in Japan.
For more information, please contact us below ↓
https://imsvisa.support/en/contact/
