綴Koseki Roots Get started

With your koseki

Koseki Family Tree

Your registers, decoded. For families who have copies of their koseki, or can request them.

$1,000 up to 6 registers (one register = one certified document from the city office)
Delivery: About 2 months after we receive all images

What you get

  • Every register transcribed and translated, entry by entry
  • Western dates (Japanese era years converted) and today's place names
  • Family tree chart and a person-by-person index
  • A separate one-page family tree to print and share with relatives (PDF, up to A3 size), with your name at the bottom
  • "Generations": a short narrative of each generation
  • Uncertain readings marked, with our level of confidence
  • Format: A4 PDF of usually 20–40 pages, depending on the number of registers; prints on US Letter with "fit to page"
  • The length depends on how many records survive for your family; we confirm it in our order confirmation email.

What you need to provide

  • Clear photos or scans of your koseki registers.
  • A "register" is one certified document from the city office, usually a few pages long. We count documents, not pages.
  • The registers we work from are closed registers (joseki: a register everyone has left through death, marriage or moving away) or pre-reformat registers (kaisei-genkoseki: an older version kept when the legal format changed).
  • Okinawan registers rebuilt after 1945 count the same way. The price is $1,000 for up to 6 registers, however few you have. For Okinawan families, and for families who went to Brazil or Peru, we also look up your ancestor in Japan's passport and emigrant lists when we know the name, at no extra charge.
  • Don't have them yet? Our free guide shows how to request the registers from abroad.

Price and payment

  • Up to 6 registers are included; each additional register is +$80.
  • You pay only after we confirm your images are readable. If they are too faint or incomplete to decode, we tell you so and do not take the order.
  • Prices are in US dollars and include all our fees for the PDF.
  • Delivery times are estimates, not guarantees. Every record gets the care it needs, so if we expect a delay, we will let you know by email.

How it fits with our other services

This is for families who have a koseki, or can request one. It needs no other service first. Compare all services at a glance.

Before thisRoots Report ($390) — If you do not have your koseki yet, the Roots Report includes a request guide written for your family. The Report also helps you find your honseki, the place where the family register is kept.
After thisChronicle + Family Tree ($4,500) — The Chronicle + Family Tree weaves this family tree into a book-length history, with a short life story of each person.

See a sample

Every service has a full public sample (Chronicle + Family Tree shares the Family Chronicle and Koseki Family Tree samples). The family in the sample is fictional; the places, records and research are real.

Read the sample on the webDownload the sample as delivered (PDF, 1.7 MB)

Koseki Family Tree — $1,000. Tell us about your family, and we reply by email within a week.

Decode my koseki