Crime Record from Japan

[Shineko]

I am in a need to get my crime record from Japan, as I have lived there for a year in the past 5 years. I need the crime record for the job I am applying to, they need a crime record from all the countries I have lived in the past five years. So far I have gotten the crime record from Germany, just missing the crime record from Japan.

As I am not living in Japan nor going to go there in the near future. I have no idea how I could get a criminal record from there. I am planning to visit the Japanese Embassy in Helsinki, to ask for help about this matter, but any additional help would be desired. Especially people, who had to go through this process.

[Emoni]

My best guess, and this is a guess cause I don't have an experience with this sort of thing, is that you could get on the right track by contacting the police office where you used to live. Somehow I don't expect the system to have any strong amount of infrastructure such as online record print ups. Then again, I don't know. Try to start from the local area if you can't find any other help.

Oh yes, and I have to ask. What did you do? ;)

[Mike Cash]

I think (hope) he means he needs it to certify that he didn't commit any crimes in Japan.

What he's looking for is called a 犯罪経歴証明書 (hanzai keireki shoumeisho) and he can get it from the prefectural police wherever he lived.

[Emoni]

When someone says they need to get their crime record from a country, I would assume it means they need to get a crime record. Not that they need to get a blank piece of paper saying, "I didn't cap any ho's in this land!" for future reference.

Have you ever heard of something like that before Mike? I've been through various processes but never seen it done that way.

Maybe it is just that he misstated what he wanted. It would at least cut down the nice ring up of felonies in both Germany AND Japan.

[Shineko]

Like Mike Cash said, I need the crime records to prove that I have not committed any crimes that could speak against the work I applied. I am in a process of going through a background check, before I can get the work, for which I need a crime record from all the places I have lived for the past five years.

Emoni there are some jobs where you need to go through a background check, this includes any kinds of criminal records. Having lived in several countries than the country I am applying the job for, I need to get the criminal records myself. Usually they can do it themselves, but in my case it is a lot more complicated as I have lived in two different countries then the country the job is in. Because of this I, sadly, have to get the crime records myself to prove them that I have not committed any crimes.

You also asked what I did, nothing much, nothing much. Never got caught you know. In other words, the crime record should be as empty as the one I got from Germany.

[Emoni]

Damn, glad it turned out like Mike said.

Now that you clarify what you are looking for, that changes the situation to something larger. One random guess (and this is a long shot), is that besides the embassy, you might consider contacting Narita Airport and ask who to contact. I know this sounds crazy, but if you literally cannot find any other method, the airport security would most likely know of someone to contact in regards to criminal checks as they would be using records like that each second.

[Shineko]

Damn, glad it turned out like Mike said.

Now that you clarify what you are looking for, that changes the situation to something larger. One random guess (and this is a long shot), is that besides the embassy, you might consider contacting Narita Airport and ask who to contact. I know this sounds crazy, but if you literally cannot find any other method, the airport security would most likely know of someone to contact in regards to criminal checks as they would be using records like that each second.

You managed to reply before I managed to edit my previous post.

I was looking at the embassy webpage and they seemed to offer something similar. It was not quite what I was looking for(meant for immigration issues etc.), so I asked if this would also be what I need. The way I have understood, it seems to the be the right one just with the strange name. If it is what I need, then I get to go the the Japanese Embassy. Only downside of it is, that it is going to take at least 2 months.

[Mike Cash]

I'm going by the Japanese Wikipedia (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8A%AF%E7%BD%AA%E7%B5%8C%E6%AD%B4%E8%A8%BC%E6%9 8%8E%E6%9B%B8) article, and my understanding is that the prefectural police where he lived would be the appropriate contact point. The other procedure (going between embassies) is listed, but seems to be specific to immigration/visa cases.

If you would tell us where you lived, I could probably Google the appropriate police and contact information for you. I noticed in my Google results that there were pages from several prefectural police departments regarding issuing this criminal background report.

[Shineko]

I'm going by the Japanese Wikipedia (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8A%AF%E7%BD%AA%E7%B5%8C%E6%AD%B4%E8%A8%BC%E6%9 8%8E%E6%9B%B8) article, and my understanding is that the prefectural police where he lived would be the appropriate contact point. The other procedure (going between embassies) is listed, but seems to be specific to immigration/visa cases.

If you would tell us where you lived, I could probably Google the appropriate police and contact information for you. I noticed in my Google results that there were pages from several prefectural police departments regarding issuing this criminal background report.

I thank you for the offer, but I just received a call from the Japanese Embassy regarding the crime record. They said that I could get it from there. All they need is to know what I need it for etc. After that they would contact the Japanese police, so that I can get the crime record. They also said it can be applied to work as well, not just immigration/visa related.

Another thank you for both of you, for helping me out with this matter.

[butakun]

I find it interesting that Belgian government imposes exactly the same requirement on work visa applicants from non-EU states. Anyway, I happen to have a colleague who had to get his judicial/criminal record via Japanese consulate in London last year. Japanese consulate office in Germany should have a form to fill out for exactly this purpose, and as you say, it takes about 1 to 2 months. It's called "警察証明書 Keisatsu Shomeisho" or "無犯罪歴証明書 Muhanzaireki Shomeisho".