View Relationships:Getting Married
Getting married in Japan can be a great option if you want a quiet wedding with a minimum of fuss. It can also be a good option if you want a huge wedding with lots of attention if your partner is Japanese, it is traditional for the groom’s parents to pay for the wedding. If they are happy with their beloved marrying a foreign woman, chances are his mother will create the event of her life, even if it isn’t the event of yours.
The legal requirements regarding getting married in Japan are fairly simple, whether you are marrying a foreigner or a Japanese person. If you are both foreigners, then Japanese law requires you to comply with the regulations of both your home countries. This involves going to your embassies and requesting a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, which is a document that basically states that you are eligible to marry according to the laws of your home country. You then take the certificates, your birth certificates, passports, and alien registration cards to your local ward office, where you complete the Marriage Notice. This form requires both your signatures and the signatures of two witnesses over the age of 20, who don’t even need to be present providing they have signed the document beforehand. And that’s aren’t already are married.
If you are marrying a Japanese man, then you need a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage from your embassy, which you submit to the ward office in which you are registering your marriage, along with your passport and a copy of his Family Register. Once these documents have been approved, you are married, without you even needing to be there.
You may change your visa status if you want to. For example, if you already have a working visa, then you may not wish to change your visa status. There are no work-related restrictions imposed on your spouse visa if you are married to a Japanese citizen, whereas if you have a spouse visa and your spouse is a foreigner, then you cannot work more than 20 hours per week.
Note: Japanese law does not recognise same-sex marriages.