Can I apply for a Japanese police certificate from outside Japan?

Yes, depending on the applicant's circumstances. Japanese diplomatic missions abroad can handle police-certificate applications, and applicants should contact the embassy or consulate serving their location for current requirements.

Can I search for a Japanese arrest warrant online?

The Courts of Japan currently states that arrest warrants cannot be searched through its website and warns users about fake court websites.

Japan Criminal Records Search: Cases & Public Records

Q: Can I request another person's Japanese police certificate?

The normal police-certificate process is personal and fingerprint-based. It is not designed as an open third-party criminal background-search service.

Q: How long does a Japanese police certificate take?

Processing varies by location and circumstances. Osaka Prefectural Police currently states that a routine certificate is normally issued about two weeks after a complete application.

Q: Is the Japanese police certificate available in English?

Yes. Current official police guidance states that Japan's criminal-record certificate contains Japanese, English, French, German and Spanish.

Q: Can I search Japanese court judgments online?

Yes. The Courts of Japan maintains a judgment-search service containing selected published decisions. It is a legal research service, not a comprehensive personal criminal-history database.

Q: Can completed Japanese criminal case records be inspected?

Certain records from final criminal proceedings may be subject to inspection under Japan's final criminal case record rules. Such records are generally handled through the relevant public prosecutors office and are subject to statutory limitations.

Japan official-record access guide

Japan does not offer a U.S.-style public criminal-history name search

Japan’s criminal-record system works very differently from public-record systems in many U.S. jurisdictions. There is no general National Police Agency website where a member of the public can enter another person’s name and retrieve arrests, convictions or a nationwide criminal background report. Official criminal-record certificates are fingerprint-based documents issued for the person concerned when a foreign government or other qualifying authority requires one. Court websites, meanwhile, publish selected judgments and legal precedents rather than a searchable personal criminal-history database.

Jurisdiction: Japan Information checked: October 2026 Primary sources: NPA, prefectural police, Courts of Japan, MOFA

Quick answer: if you need your own Japanese criminal-record certificate for a visa, immigration, overseas employment, licensing or another official foreign requirement, contact the prefectural police headquarters where you live or last lived in Japan, or a Japanese embassy/consulate if you are abroad. If you are trying to look up another person’s complete criminal history, Japan does not provide an open nationwide public name-search service for that purpose.

Get your own police certificate Fingerprint-based certificate for qualifying official overseas purposes.

Certificate process →

Search published judgments Selected Supreme Court and lower-court judgments, not personal background files.

Court search →

Inspect a concluded criminal case Final case records may be available under separate access rules.

Case-record access →

Applying from overseas Contact the Japanese embassy or consulate responsible for your location.

Overseas route →

Why you cannot simply type a person’s name into a Japanese criminal-record database

Japan does not operate a public-facing nationwide criminal-history service comparable to some U.S. state court or criminal-history databases.

The National Police Agency maintains criminal-identification information used for law-enforcement purposes, but its official Certificate of Criminal Record is issued through a controlled, fingerprint-based process to the individual concerned when the certificate is required by an appropriate foreign authority or for another qualifying purpose.

A website claiming to provide a complete Japanese criminal record by simply entering a name should not be confused with an official Japanese government criminal-history service. Japan’s police and court systems do not provide that kind of open nationwide personal search.

The Courts of Japan website itself also warns users that arrest warrants cannot be searched through the court website.

“Criminal record” can mean several different things in Japan

Police certificate

犯罪経歴証明書

A fingerprint-based Certificate of Criminal Record issued for qualifying official purposes, most commonly when a foreign authority requires it.

Court judgment

Published case decision

Selected judicial decisions published by the Courts of Japan for legal research and precedent. This is not a nationwide background-check database.

Final criminal file

Concluded-case records

Records from a criminal case after the judgment becomes final may be held by the relevant public prosecutors office and can be subject to inspection rules.

Police information

Investigation / arrest records

Law-enforcement records are not turned into an open general-public name database.

Statistics

Crime data

NPA publishes nationwide crime statistics and prefectural crime open data, but these datasets describe incidents rather than individual criminal histories.

Warrant

Arrest warrant information

The Courts of Japan specifically warns that users cannot search arrest warrants on its website.

How Japan’s official Certificate of Criminal Record works

Japan’s official criminal-record certificate is commonly called a police certificate or Certificate of Criminal Record.

The National Police Agency’s certificate format states that the certificate is based on a search of fingerprint files maintained by the National Police Agency.

The certificate is not designed as a casual personal background-report service. Prefectural police guidance explains that it is normally issued when a foreign government, embassy, immigration authority, licensing body or other appropriate official authority requires the applicant to submit it for a qualifying purpose.

Common qualifying situations can include: immigration, permanent residence, a long-term visa, overseas employment where required by an official authority, overseas licensing or professional qualification, or another foreign-government procedure that specifically asks for a Japanese police certificate.

View NPA Certificate Format

You normally request your own certificate — not someone else’s

Prefectural police procedures require the person concerned to apply personally because fingerprints must be collected or submitted as part of the process.

Osaka Prefectural Police, for example, explicitly states that a representative cannot submit the original application on the applicant’s behalf because fingerprinting is required.

A private employer simply asking for a certificate may not be enough. Osaka’s official guidance states that the police certificate is issued when it is required by a foreign official authority. A request made only by a private individual or private company may not satisfy the issuance conditions.

Residence jurisdiction matters

Applications in Japan are generally handled by the prefectural police headquarters connected to the applicant’s current residence.

A person now living overseas may also be directed based on their last registered address in Japan or may apply through a Japanese diplomatic mission abroad.

Documents usually needed for a Japanese police certificate

Exact document requirements should always be checked with the responsible prefectural police headquarters because procedures can vary slightly.

Official prefectural guidance commonly requires:

completed criminal-record certificate application form
valid passport
proof that a foreign authority requires the certificate
proof of current Japanese residence
residence card for qualifying foreign nationals
My Number Card or driver’s license where accepted
residence certificate when required
proof of overseas residence for applicants living abroad

The “proof of need” document matters. Police may ask for a visa application, immigration document, foreign-government letter, licensing application or other paperwork showing why the overseas authority requires the certificate.

A prefectural police headquarters may ask for a Japanese translation when the supporting document is written only in a foreign language.

Fingerprinting is central to the official certificate

The Japanese police certificate is tied to fingerprint records rather than being produced from a simple internet name search.

Applicants should expect fingerprints to be collected as part of the official process. This is also why original applications generally must be made personally rather than through an ordinary representative.

Identity accuracy is the point of the fingerprint process. It reduces the ambiguity that comes with common names, romanization differences, changed surnames and different writing systems.

Where to apply while living in Japan

Contact the police headquarters for the prefecture where you are registered as a resident. Do not assume that an ordinary neighborhood police box (koban) or local police station can issue the certificate.

Osaka Prefectural Police, for example, accepts applications only through its prefectural police headquarters and specifically states that applications cannot be submitted at ordinary police stations or police boxes.

1 Identify your prefecture Use your registered Japanese residential address.

2 Find the police headquarters Locate the official prefectural police website.

3 Check certificate requirements Confirm accepted purpose, documents and office hours.

4 Appear for fingerprinting Follow the headquarters’ application procedure.

Find Prefectural Police Websites

How to obtain a Japanese police certificate while living overseas

Japanese citizens and foreign nationals who previously lived in Japan may be able to apply through the Japanese embassy or consulate serving their current location.

Prefectural police guidance advises overseas applicants to contact the Japanese diplomatic mission first because the required documents and processing time can differ from an application submitted inside Japan.

Do not submit duplicate applications in Japan and overseas at the same time. Osaka police guidance states that once an applicant has applied through a Japanese embassy or consulate, another simultaneous application cannot be accepted through the prefectural process.

How much does a Japanese criminal-record certificate cost?

Fee rules should be checked with the responsible prefectural police headquarters. Osaka Prefectural Police currently lists its criminal-record certificate application as free of charge.

How long does issuance take?

Osaka’s current official guidance says a certificate is normally issued about two weeks after the completed application, although holidays and unusual cases can extend the processing period.

Plan ahead. Visa and immigration deadlines often leave little room for document problems. Confirm your prefecture’s processing time before booking a foreign-government appointment.

Do not open the police certificate envelope unless instructed

One particularly important practical detail is that the issued police certificate may be sealed for delivery to the requesting foreign authority.

Osaka Prefectural Police warns that opening the sealed envelope can invalidate the certificate.

Before opening anything: check the instructions from the embassy, immigration office, licensing authority or other body that asked for the certificate.

The certificate is multilingual

Japan’s police criminal-record certificate is issued in multiple languages.

Current prefectural police guidance states that the certificate is presented in:

Japanese
English
French
German
Spanish

The National Police Agency’s standard certificate format itself contains these languages.

If the destination country asks for an apostille or authentication

The police certificate and the legalization of that certificate are separate steps. When the foreign authority requires an apostille or other authentication, follow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan procedure.

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles apostilles and authentication for qualifying Japanese public documents.

MOFA Certification Guide

Current Tokyo counter change: MOFA announced that from October 5, 2026, its Tokyo service-desk applications require an online appointment, and certified documents are returned by postal mail. Check current MOFA instructions because procedures can change.

What you can search on the Courts of Japan website

The Courts of Japan maintains an official Judgments Search.

This database is useful for legal research. It allows searches using criteria such as:

keyword
judgment date
case number
bench
original court

The site includes selected Supreme Court and other published decisions, including criminal cases.

Search Published Judgments

This is not a background-check portal. The judgment database does not provide a complete name-indexed criminal-history record for every person prosecuted or convicted in Japan.

Why court judgment search is not the same as looking up a person’s criminal record

Source	What it is for	What it does not provide
NPA / prefectural police certificate	Official fingerprint-based criminal-record certification for qualifying purposes.	Not an open public search for another person.
Courts judgment search	Selected published judicial decisions and legal research.	Not every criminal case and not a complete personal criminal-history database.
Final criminal case record	Access to concluded case materials under applicable inspection rules.	Not necessarily available online or without restrictions.
NPA crime statistics	National crime trends and incident statistics.	No personal criminal-history search.

Access to records after a Japanese criminal case is final

Japan does provide a legal route for inspecting certain records from completed criminal proceedings, but this is different from a web-based criminal-history search.

Official NPA victim-support information explains that records and judgments from criminal cases that have become final are kept by the public prosecutors office handling the matter and can be subject to inspection under Japan’s Act on Final Criminal Case Records.

Older Ministry of Justice explanatory material likewise states that final criminal-case records may, in principle, be inspected, subject to the statutory rules and exceptions.

Where to start: identify the case and the Public Prosecutors Office that handled it. Access is not accomplished through a nationwide defendant-name background-check portal.

NPA’s current victim-information material notes that records other than the judgment itself are generally subject to a limited inspection period, commonly three years after the judgment becomes final, subject to the applicable law and individual circumstances.

Pending criminal-case records are more restricted

Pending criminal-case files should not be assumed to be available to an unrelated member of the public.

Victims may have specific rights to inspect or copy certain litigation materials during a criminal trial when the legal requirements are met, but this is a special statutory access route rather than a general public background search.

Practical difference: Japan’s principle of open court hearings does not mean every investigative document, pending case file or defendant’s complete history is publicly downloadable.

Cases that did not lead to prosecution are not generally open criminal records

Official Ministry of Justice explanatory material states that records of cases in which prosecutors decided not to prosecute are generally not disclosed.

Limited disclosure may sometimes be considered for victims or related parties who need particular evidence to exercise legal rights—for example, in a related civil damages case—but that is not the same as public access for ordinary background research.

Do not equate an investigation or police questioning with a conviction. A person can be investigated, questioned or arrested without ultimately being convicted.

You cannot search Japanese arrest warrants on the court website

The Courts of Japan currently publishes an explicit warning that arrest warrants cannot be searched on the official court website.

The court also warns about fake websites impersonating Japanese courts and using supposed warrant information as part of scams.

Fraud warning: if a website, caller or message tells you to search or pay for a Japanese arrest warrant through a court-lookalike website, verify the matter directly through the official courts.go.jp domain or appropriate law-enforcement authority.

Can a private employer obtain a Japanese criminal-record certificate?

Japan’s police certificate is not designed as a routine employer background-check product that a private company can order whenever it chooses.

Osaka Prefectural Police expressly states that if a company alone asks an employee to obtain the certificate, the application cannot be accepted unless the certificate is actually required by the relevant foreign official authority or fits another recognized issuance purpose.

If an overseas employer asks for one: ask whether the certificate is required by immigration, a government licensing body or another official authority. Bring documentation showing that formal requirement when applying.

For crime trends, use Japan’s official crime statistics instead

If your goal is research into crime rates, offenses or location patterns rather than checking a specific person, the National Police Agency publishes official crime statistics.

NPA currently provides finalized annual statistics going back many years and provisional current-year crime data.

NPA Crime Statistics

NPA also links to crime open-data portals maintained by Japan’s prefectural police forces. These datasets commonly concern incident locations and offense categories, not personal criminal histories.

Prefectural Crime Open Data

Practical tips for researching criminal information in Japan

Tip 01

Define your goal first

A police certificate, published judgment and final criminal case file are different things.

Tip 02

Do not expect a public name search

Japan does not provide the type of open statewide defendant search commonly seen in parts of the U.S.

Tip 03

Use fingerprints for your certificate

The official police-certificate process is fingerprint-based and tied to the applicant’s identity.

Tip 04

Bring proof of official need

A foreign-government or immigration requirement is often essential to issuance.

Tip 05

Check the correct prefecture

Applications in Japan are handled by the relevant prefectural police headquarters.

Tip 06

Do not open sealed documents

Follow the requesting authority’s instructions before opening a police certificate envelope.

Tip 07

Judgment database = legal research

Published judgments are useful for case-law research, not for comprehensive personal histories.

Tip 08

Beware fake warrant sites

Japan’s official courts explicitly say arrest warrants cannot be searched on their website.

Tip 09

Apply early

Certificate issuance can take around two weeks or longer depending on location and circumstances.

Common questions about Japanese criminal records

1. Can I search someone’s criminal record online in Japan?

Japan does not provide a general nationwide public government name-search database for another person’s complete criminal history. Official police certificates are fingerprint-based and are issued to the person concerned for qualifying official purposes.

2. What is Japan’s official criminal-record certificate?

It is a Certificate of Criminal Record, often called a police certificate, issued through Japan’s police system after a fingerprint-based check when an appropriate foreign authority or other qualifying official process requires it.

3. Can I request another person’s Japanese police certificate?

The ordinary application process is personal and fingerprint-based. Applicants generally must appear themselves, and the certificate is not designed as an open third-party background-search product.

4. Where do I apply for a criminal-record certificate in Japan?

Apply through the prefectural police headquarters responsible for your residence. Local procedures should be confirmed in advance because ordinary police stations or koban may not accept applications.

5. Can I apply for the certificate from outside Japan?

Yes, depending on your circumstances. Former residents and Japanese nationals abroad may apply through a Japanese embassy or consulate. Contact the diplomatic mission first for its exact requirements.

6. How long does a Japanese police certificate take?

Processing varies. Osaka Prefectural Police currently says issuance is normally about two weeks after a complete application, with longer periods possible around holidays or in unusual cases.

7. Is the Japanese police certificate available in English?

Yes. Current police guidance states that the certificate is produced in Japanese, English, French, German and Spanish.

8. Can I search Japanese court judgments online?

Yes. The Courts of Japan maintains an official judgment-search system containing selected published decisions. It is intended for judicial-decision research and is not a comprehensive personal criminal-history database.

9. Can I search for an arrest warrant online through Japanese courts?

No. The Courts of Japan currently warns that arrest warrants cannot be searched on the court website. Be cautious of fake sites or messages claiming otherwise.

10. Can completed Japanese criminal-case records be inspected?

Certain records from final criminal proceedings may be inspected under Japan’s rules governing final criminal case records. These records are generally held by the relevant public prosecutors office, and statutory restrictions and access periods apply.