Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of public documents from Japan by apostille.
Japan acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 1970. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of documents from Japan is needed for successful legal communication with other member states of the Convention. The documents only need to be attested by an apostille certificate with an "apostille" stamp on it by the issuing state's authorities in order to be valid in the state of destination.
The apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. It should be filled in in the official language of the issuing authority. The heading "Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" written in French is a necessary requirement for the apostille's validity.
Responsible for issuing the apostille is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Please, note, that the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only accept public documents issued by the state bodies. Privately issued documents should be submitted for the apostille certification either by the state notary offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Kanagawa or through a state notary office with subsequent certification of a document by the director of the relevant legal affairs office.
Documents issued by most universities, private hospitals, associations, charity foundations of chambers of commerce and industry can not be directly apostillized.
Documents drawn up in Japanese and issued by the state authorities or other authorized bodies can be legalized.
The process of legalizing documents in Japan involves verifying their origin and authenticity by authorized government officials. After passing through this procedure, a special stamp is placed on the document - an apostille. Most often, the apostille is placed on the back of the document, or on a separate sheet, after which the document is stitched.
An apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" must be in French.
The following documents can be authenticated by apostille:
- Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
- Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
- Trade register excerpts
- Court decisions
- Notary certified copies of documents
- Notary certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
- Commercial documents legalized by a state registration body (articles of incorporation, registration certificates, tax registrations etc.)
Requirements for the documents:
The apostille can be exclusively issued for the original document. Therefore, the underlying document must be presented in good condition, with all stamps and signatures clear and readable. Furthermore, it should not contain alien markings or labels.
Additional services
In addition to the legalization of your documents, we can provide you with high-quality translations.
Should you require company information for use in court, it needs to be legalized as well. We can therefore provide you with extracts from the commercial register of Japan including the apostille certification and translation into the language of the document's state of destination.
On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.
Courier services are charged and invoiced separately according to the courier service’s rates.
You can pay for our services by PayPal, bank transfer or credit card.
| Service | Price incl. German VAT 19% | Price excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Price for an apostille for a document from Japan without international shipping | from 416,50 € | from 350,00 € |
