Local governments have deleted the resident registrations of 241 out of 297 missing people recorded as centenarians, according to a nationwide investigation by The Yomiuri Shimbun. Although about 80 percent of the missing centenarians were removed from resident lists, the whereabouts of many more are unknown despite the fact that they are recorded as alive in family registers or resident registrations.
Local authorities in charge of family registers are believed to have failed to properly report the deaths of 33 "missing" centenarians to other local authorities in charge of resident registrations. Most of the remaining missing centenarians will likely be deleted from resident registration lists. As of Friday, deletion procedures were under way for 44 such people.
The Yomiuri asked 55 municipal governments about the status of missing centenarians. As of Aug. 14, 242 centenarians were reported missing, but similar cases were later found in Yokohama and other places. Hyogo Prefecture had the largest number of such cases at 119. Among municipalities, Kobe had 113, followed by Osaka's 45 and Yokohama's 38. In most cases, local governments deleted the residents' registration at their initiative.
Resident registrations can normally be created or deleted in the Basic Residents' Register only upon application, but local governments can delete registrations if residence in the municipality cannot be confirmed for many years or there are other irregularities. Local governments have not acted to delete the registrations of the remaining 12 missing centenarians. For example, the office of Minato Ward, Tokyo, said it had not started the procedures in one case because it was still investigating the missing resident's status.
In 70 cases, municipal governments were able to contact relatives of missing centenarians through interviews or telephone, but none were able to confirm the whereabouts of their missing relatives. In 105 of the 241 cases in which resident registrations were deleted, other people lived at the addresses listed as the person's residence. In 29 cases, no houses existed at the addresses. Relatives asked local governments to delete resident registrations or told the local governments they did not know the whereabouts of missing centenarians in 37 cases.
One missing person was registered as 200 years old-meaning the person was born during the Edo period (1603-1867). The concerned local governments are taking procedures to delete both family registers and resident registrations of such people.
(The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sep. 6, 2010)
