## (4) Measures to Increase Convenience of the Mid to Long-Term Resident by Using Immigration Bureau’s Electronic Notification System

A. Immigration Bureau’s Electronic Notification System

The notification relating to the organization of affiliation to be made by the mid to long-term resident (each item of Article 19-16 of the Immigration Control Act) and the notification relating to the mid to long-term resident to be made by the organization of affiliation (Article 19-17 of the Immigration Control) may be made through submitting the documents to the regional Immigration Bureau or posting them to the Residence Management Information Department of Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. In addition, the Immigration Bureau's electronic notification system has been operated for enabling notifications to be made using the Internet since June 24, 2013. Mid to long-term residents and the staff of the organizations of affiliation are able to access the electronic notification system using their own Internet environment and to make a notification by entering the necessary items. Further more, since this administrative services system is one which connects to outside users via the Internet, for the convenience of the user, the screen is displayed in a variety of languages (Japanese, English, Chinese (simplified characters and traditional characters), Korean, Spanish, Portuguese and Tagalog).

Advantages of the Immigration Bureau’s electronic notification system are as follows.

(i) Foreign nationals do not have to go to the counter, but are able to make a notification using the Internet from their home or office and check the status of their notification

(ii) The use of the system is free of charge

(iii) A notification may be made 24 hours a day 365 days a year

(iv) Omissions of details are checked automatically

(v) Notifications to be made by the organization of affiliation may be made using the specific format allowing file format allowing a number of notifications to be made together

The staff of an organization of affiliation which has registered the organization’s user information $ (*) $ for using the Immigration Bureau’s electronic notification system will be able to make a notification of a change in the name of the organization of affiliation or a change in the location in accordance with the provisions of Article 19-16 of the Immigration Control Act through use of the electronic notification system, upon a request being made by a mid to long-term resident who has also registered his or her user information, in place of such mid to long-term resident.

### B. Immigration Bureau’s Seiji Search System

The name given in the residence card and the special permanent resident certificate, in principle, should be given using the Roman alphabet, but in certain cases such as where a request is made by the foreign national, the name may be indicated in kanji together with or in place of the Roman letters.

With regard to the indication of names using kanji characters in the residence card and the special permanent resident certificate, in accordance with the Public Notice on the Indication of Kanji Character Names in the Residence Cards and Other Certificates (Ministry of Justice Public Notice