The State Construction of 'Japaneseness': The Koseki Registration System in Japan

For more than 140 years, Japan's koseki registration system has functioned as the official means by which an individual qualifies as 'Japanese'. Information concerning each family is entered into one koseki register record in a system that documents the status relationship information of Japan's population based on the notion of 'bloodline'. Tracing the history of the koseki registration system from its inception in the Meiji era through its use in Japan's colonial holdings in the pre-war e...