Getting married or registering a civil partnership abroad: Information based on your answers

Same-sex marriage and civil partnership in Japan

Before you start

You can get married at the British Embassy in Tokyo.

Check the travel advice for Japan and get legal advice before making any plans.

Prove you’re free to get married

You need to go to the British Embassy in Tokyo to say that you want to get married. This is called giving notice. Your partner will also need to do this if they’re British.

You need to have been in Japan for at least 7 full days before you can give notice. This means if you arrived on Monday, you can’t give notice until the following Tuesday.

You both need to sign a declaration that you’re free to marry and that you have resided in Japan for at least 21 full days (this includes the 7 days).

Give notice of your marriage

Make an appointment to give notice of your marriage at the embassy in Tokyo.

It costs £50 to give notice. You can pay in the local currency with cash or card (Visa or Mastercard).

You need to bring:

your and your partner’s passports
proof that you’ve been in Japan for at least 7 full days, for example immigration stamps, airline tickets
evidence of your address, if you’re a resident

Your partner needs to bring evidence that they are free to marry. This is:

a ‘Koseki-Tohon’ or ‘Dokushin Shomeisho’ (from a local ward office), if they’re Japanese
a single certificate (from their embassy or consulate), if they’re from somewhere else

The embassy or consulate will display your notice publicly for 14 days. If nobody registers an objection, you can get married up to 3 months after the end of your notice period.

Contact the embassy in Tokyo to set a date for your wedding.

If you or your partner have been married or in a civil partnership before

You and your partner will also need to take one of the following documents, depending on how the marriage or civil partnership ended:

your decree absolute or final order (this could be a printed PDF and covering email from the court)
your annulment certificate
your civil partnership dissolution
your late partner’s death certificate and marriage certificate

You can provide copies of a decree or death certificate instead of originals. They’ll need to be certified by a notary public or solicitor in the country where the divorce took place or the death was registered.

If the divorce, civil partnership dissolution or annulment took place outside the UK, provide evidence that you or your ex partner lived in or were a national of that country at the time.

If any of these documents are not in English or Japanese, you’ll need to bring an official English translation with the original. There’s a list of English-speaking translators in Japan.

Sign a declaration

You and your partner need to sign a declaration to say that you’re legally allowed to get married and that you’ve both resided in Japan for at least the last 21 full days. You need to show this with your:

residence card, if you live in Japan
passport, if you live somewhere else

You’ll do this at the embassy in Tokyo on your wedding day.

Get married

Your wedding ceremony will be at the embassy in Tokyo on the date you agreed.

You’ll need to bring 2 witnesses to your ceremony who must:

bring photo ID
be 16 or over
know you or your partner
understand English well enough to follow the ceremony and read the marriage register

You, your partner, your 2 witnesses and the consular officer will sign the marriage register.

It costs £150 to register your marriage. You can also pay £50 for a marriage certificate if you want one.

You’ll need to pay before your wedding in the local currency with cash or card (Visa or Mastercard).

After you get married

You’ll be married under UK law, so your marriage will be recognised in the UK but not in Japan or other countries where same-sex marriage isn’t legal.

If your partner isn’t a British citizen, they can apply for British citizenship once they’ve lived in the UK for 3 years.