Voting from abroad in Japanese elections

Voting from abroad in Japanese elections
You cannot register to vote from abroad at the last minute. Registration goes through the consulate and then to your municipality in Japan, and it takes weeks before the voting card reaches you.

Japanese nationals living abroad can vote in national elections, through the overseas voter register. Registering is a separate act from the residence notification, although both are filed at the consulate.

The two things to file, and the order

What to do, in order
  • File the overseas residence notification when you move: online through ORR net, or at the consulate
  • Apply for the overseas voter registration
  • Wait for the voting card, which is issued in Japan and posted to you
  • Keep the address on the register up to date, or the card goes to the wrong place
    •  The voting card is the document that lets you vote. Registering without receiving it means you are on the register and cannot use it, which is the situation people discover a week before an election. 
    Voting from abroad: what to file, in order
    Voting from abroad: what to file, in order

    How you vote once you are registered

    Either in person at the consulate during the voting period it announces, or by post from Japan. The consulate publishes the dates for each election, and the in-person window is short.

    If you move within the United States

    Moving between consular districts means notifying the change. The districts are not intuitive: Nevada belongs to San Francisco, West Virginia to New York, and California and Connecticut are divided by ZIP code. A move of a few miles can change which consulate holds your file.

    The residence notification, which does more than you think

    The overseas residence notification, filed when you move abroad, is what connects you to the consulate: it is how the office reaches you in an emergency, how it counts the Japanese community in its district, and the basis for the voter registration.

    It can be filed online through ORR net without visiting the counter, and updating it after a move takes minutes.

    Which elections you can vote in

    National elections: the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors, and national referendums. Local elections in Japan are not open to voters registered abroad.

     The voting card is issued by your last municipality in Japan and posted to the address on your notification. An out-of-date address is the commonest reason a registered voter cannot vote. 

    Voting in person at the consulate

    Each office announces its voting period, and it is short: a handful of days, within counter hours. Offices that cover several states are a long drive for most of their district, which is why the postal route exists.

    If you return to Japan

    Registering as a resident in Japan again removes you from the overseas register. Moving back abroad later means registering again from scratch, with the same weeks of waiting for a new card.

    All the proceduresFees and requirements

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