How an Heir Living Overseas Proceeds with Inheritance Procedures in Japan | Practical Guidance as of 2026

A parent who lived in Japan has died, while I, the heir, live overseas. A Japanese bank account and the family home remain in Japan——this is the most common pattern among the international inheritance cases brought to our office.

Although the “order” of the required procedures is the same for an inheritance completed entirely in Japan and one in which an heir lives overseas, the documents required at each individual stage are completely different. Many people come to our office after following an article intended for domestic cases without knowing this difference, only to find that they still cannot close the bank account even six months later.

This article organizes the overall picture when an heir living overseas proceeds with inheritance procedures in Japan, including the points at which the process is most likely to stop.

Key Points of This Article

• Japanese inheritance procedures proceed through six stages: ① determining the heirs → ② investigating the inherited assets → ③ deciding whether to accept or renounce the inheritance → ④ estate division discussions → ⑤ changing the registered names → ⑥ tax filing.
• At all of stages ①, ②, ④, and ⑤, an heir living overseas needs documents different from those required of a person living in Japan.
• The biggest obstacle is that a seal registration certificate does not exist, so you need to prepare a signature certificate issued by a Japanese diplomatic mission abroad or authentication documents from a local notary.
• Deadlines do not wait. Renunciation of inheritance: three months; inheritance tax filing: ten months; inheritance registration: three years. You need to work backward on the assumption that international mailing of documents takes one month round trip.
• In 2026, the “Certificate of Records of Owned Real Estate System” and the “mandatory registration of changes of address and other information” began, directly affecting the practical work of heirs living overseas as well.

1. The Overall Picture of Japanese Inheritance Procedures: Six Stages

First, regardless of nationality or place of residence, the basic framework is the same when inheriting assets located in Japan.

① Determining the Heirs

Collect a continuous set of family-register records from the birth through the death of the decedent (the person who died), and determine who the legal heirs are. People often assume, “Since we are family, we know who the heirs are,” but Japanese banks and Legal Affairs Bureaus recognize heirs only through family-register records as written documentation.

② Investigating the Inherited Assets

Identify deposits and savings, real estate, securities, life insurance, and liabilities. Because you cannot check mail while overseas, this is a stage at which assets are easily overlooked.

③ Deciding Whether to Accept or Renounce the Inheritance

You may choose to renounce the inheritance when there are substantial liabilities, for example, but as a rule there is a deadline of within three months from the time you learn that the inheritance has commenced.

④ Estate Division Discussions

If there is no will, all heirs discuss who will acquire what and put the agreement into a written estate division agreement. Discussions are invalid if even one heir is missing.

⑤ Changing the Registered Names (Carrying Out the Inheritance Procedures)

Proceed with account closures and withdrawals at each financial institution, inheritance registration for real estate, transfers of securities accounts, and so on. The required documents and forms differ for each destination.

⑥ Tax Filing

When an inheritance tax return is required, file and pay the tax within 10 months of the death.

2. Four Additional Burdens That Arise Only for Heirs Living Overseas

This is where the problem begins. When you try to proceed with the six stages above from overseas, burdens arise that do not occur in an inheritance handled within Japan.

Burden 1: No Seal Registration Certificate Exists

Japanese inheritance procedures are designed on the assumption that the estate division agreement will bear a registered seal and be accompanied by a seal registration certificate. However, seal registration is a system for people who have a resident registration in a Japanese municipality, and a person who has removed their Japanese resident registration and lives overseas cannot obtain a seal certificate in the first place.

The substitute is a signature certificate (signature attestation) issued by the Japanese embassy or consulate in the country of residence. However,

• Because you must sign in front of a consular officer, as a rule you must go to the diplomatic mission in person
• Financial institutions or Legal Affairs Bureaus may not accept the documents unless the estate division agreement and other documents are in a “bound together” format
• In countries and regions where the diplomatic mission is far away, you need to coordinate a schedule that involves travel

These restrictions mean that if you make a mistake in how the documents are prepared, you will have to go there again to obtain the certificate again. A considerable number of the people living overseas who consult our office have experienced this reissuance.

There are also cases where you cannot use a diplomatic mission, or where using a local notary public is more realistic. In such cases, the authentication format and whether consular legalization or an apostille is required differ by country, so you must confirm in advance the format accepted by the financial institution or Legal Affairs Bureau to which the documents will be submitted.

Burden 2: You Cannot Prove a Japanese Address

An address certificate is required for an estate division agreement and inheritance registration, but people living overseas cannot obtain a residence certificate. Here too, a certificate of residence issued by a diplomatic mission, for example, may be used as a substitute. However, the type of certificate you should obtain changes depending on which point in time the address must be proved for and whether continuity from a former address is required.

Burden 3: Family-Register Records Are Difficult to Collect as Expected

Since March 2024, the family-register “wide-area issuance” system has made it possible to request a set of certified copies of family-register records at a municipality other than the permanent domicile. However, the system has these limitations:

• Requests are limited to the person concerned, their spouse, lineal ascendants, and lineal descendants (the family-register records of siblings are excluded)
• The requester must make the request in person at a municipal office, and the system cannot be used for requests by mail or by an agent
• Old family-register records that have not been computerized are excluded

In other words, this convenient system is almost unusable for heirs living overseas. You must either request the records by mail from each permanent domicile as before, or ask a specialist in Japan to collect them through an occupational request.

Burden 4: Time, Mailing, and Translation

For exchanges of documents with overseas locations, you need to allow several weeks to one month round trip. In addition, Japanese procedures are based on the original-document principle. Since originals must be sent by international mail, you must always factor in the risk of loss and the time required to obtain replacements. Foreign-language certificates must also be accompanied by Japanese translations.

3. Working Backward from the Deadlines Leaves Less Time Than You Think

For a person living overseas, these deadlines must also contain waiting for an appointment at a diplomatic mission, international mailing, translation, and communication across time zones. In cases requiring an inheritance tax return, it is not unusual to spend three of the ten months only sending documents back and forth. The later you start, the fewer options you have.

4. Two Systems That Began in 2026 and Their Impact on Heirs Living Overseas

Certificate of Records of Owned Real Estate System (Operation Began February 2, 2026)

This system allows you to make a consolidated inquiry at a Legal Affairs Bureau about what real estate the decedent owned and where it was located nationwide, and receive the results as a certificate listing the properties. A person who owns real estate or that person’s heir may make the request at a Legal Affairs Bureau. If no property is recorded in the registry under the owner’s name, a certificate stating that there is no applicable real estate will be issued. You can request it at any Legal Affairs Bureau nationwide in three ways: at a counter, by mail, or online.

For heirs who cannot come to Japan, the system is significant because it helps prevent overlooking real estate other than the family home. However, unregistered buildings and real estate whose registered address or name does not match the current circumstances may still be missed, so this system alone does not complete the asset investigation.

Mandatory Registration of Changes of Address and Other Information (Effective April 1, 2026)

When a real estate owner changes their address, name, or other information, they must register the change within two years of the date it occurred. Failure to do so without a valid reason may result in an administrative fine of up to 50,000 yen. Even if the address or other information was changed before April 1, 2026, the change must be registered by March 31, 2028.

When a person living overseas inherits real estate in Japan, they bear the dual obligations of inheritance registration (within three years) and subsequent registration of a change of address (within two years). This is not a minor practical impact, as management becomes more difficult for people who repeatedly relocate overseas.

5. Whom Should You Engage? The Roles of Specialists Are Divided

Japanese inheritance procedures are not structured so that one professional qualification can handle everything.

It is not realistic for a person living overseas to find four separate specialists and communicate with each of them in English or Chinese across time zones. Consolidating the overall point of contact and connecting you with the necessary specialist at the necessary stage ultimately gets the process completed most quickly.

6. How Our Office Helps with International Inheritance

Gyoseishoshi Arch Office has handled procedures involving foreign nationals and people living overseas, including applications for statuses of residence, in Osaka for more than 15 years. We routinely provide services in Chinese and also consult with heirs who feel uneasy about detailed communication in Japanese.

For international inheritance, we help in the following ways:

• Collecting the family-register records needed to determine the heirs and preparing a diagram explaining the inheritance relationship
• Preparing an estate division agreement in a form that allows an heir living overseas to sign and obtain the necessary certification
• Confirming in advance how to prepare signature certificates and certificates of residence from a diplomatic mission in a format accepted by the submission destination
• Organizing the documents required by each financial institution and supporting account closure and withdrawal procedures
• Coordinating with a judicial scrivener when inheritance registration is required and with a tax accountant when an inheritance tax return is required
• Communicating in Chinese and Japanese and explaining the contents of the documents

The most common—and most effective—time to consult us is when you are at the stage of saying, “I do not know where to start.” This is because we can determine the overall design before you have to redo documents and obtain them again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I complete the inheritance procedures without returning to Japan even once? A. It depends on the case. If the procedures mainly involve closing deposit accounts, there are many cases that can be completed without returning to Japan. On the other hand, there will still be situations where you need to go in person locally, such as obtaining a signature certificate at a diplomatic mission in your country of residence. After confirming the assets and the composition of the heirs, we first determine whether returning to Japan is necessary.

Q. I do not have a seal. Can I not complete the procedures? A. You can. Because people living overseas cannot register a seal, the accepted practice is to use a signature and signature certificate instead of a registered seal and seal certificate. However, there are rules on the certificate’s format and how it is bound, and an error may result in rejection.

Q. One of the heirs cannot read Japanese. A. The estate division agreement is prepared in Japanese, but we explain its contents in the person’s native language before asking them to sign. Our office can provide explanations in Chinese.

Q. It has been several years since the decedent died. Is it too late? A. It is not too late. Even if the deadline for renunciation of inheritance has passed, changes to the names on deposits and real estate can still be handled now. However, inheritance registration is mandatory, and if another heir dies and the number of people involved increases (successive inheritance), the difficulty rises, so we recommend starting promptly.

Q. I only want to know whether inheritance tax will apply. A. The determination of inheritance-tax liability changes depending on the total value of the assets, the number of heirs, and the respective addresses and nationalities of the decedent and the heirs. For people living overseas, determining the scope of taxation is itself an issue, so we organize the relevant assumptions at the initial consultation and, when necessary, refer you to a partner tax accountant.

Please Start by Consulting Us to Organize the Current Situation

The biggest reason that costs and time expand in international inheritance is preparing the wrong documents and then having to obtain them again from overseas. Conversely, once the plan is set at the beginning, the range of procedures that can be completed while overseas is broader than you might expect.

Gyoseishoshi Arch Office accepts initial consultations. At the consultation, if you have ready the date of the decedent’s death, the number of heirs and their countries of residence, and the types of assets you know about (bank names, real-estate locations, and so on), we can tell you on the spot what to expect from the process. We can respond in either Japanese or Chinese.

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