Alien Registration Card
After a person registers as an alien, they were issued a photographic identity document called a Certificate of Alien Registration (外国人登録証明書, gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho?), abbreviated (as is common in Japan) to gaitōshō (外登証?), and colloquially referred to in English as an "alien registration card" ("ARC") or "gaijin card." All aliens in Japan were required to carry their passport or ARC at all times. The issuance of an ARC generally took about two weeks from the filing of the application.
Alien registration could also be evidenced by a certificate of matters in the alien registration records (外国人登録原票記載事項証明書, gaikokujin tōroku genpyō kisai jikō shōmeisho?), which is an A4-sized printed copy of the information currently on file, similar in form to the residency registration certificates used by Japanese nationals. Because this form of certificate did not contain the subject's photograph, it was not as widely accepted as the ARC for identity verification purposes, and was mainly used as a temporary certificate when an ARC is unavailable.
The ARC had to be surrendered when the foreigner left Japan unless they had a valid re-entry permit in their passport.
Read more about this topic: Alien Registration In Japan
Famous quotes containing the words alien and/or card:
“We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“In the game of “Whist for two,” usually called “Correspondence,” the lady plays what card she likes: the gentleman simply follows suit. If she leads with “Queen of Diamonds,” however, he may, if he likes, offer the “Ace of Hearts”: and, if she plays “Queen of Hearts,” and he happens to have no Heart left, he usually plays “Knave of Clubs.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)