Hochiki

A Hochiki (户籍) is a Surean family registry. Surean law requires all Surean households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Surean citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Surean citizens within their jurisdiction. Marriages, adoptions and acknowledgements of paternity become legally effective only when such events are recorded in the hochiki. Births and deaths became legally effective as they happen, but such events must be filed by family members.

Format
A typical hochiki has one page for the household's parents and their first two children: additional children are recorded on additional pages. Any changes to this information have to be sealed by an official registrar.

The following items are recorded in the hochiki. (Law of Family Register, (户籍律), article 13.)


 * family name and given name
 * date of birth
 * date of records and causes (marriage, death, adoption, etc.)
 * names of the father and the mother and the relation to them
 * if adopted, names of the adoptive father and mother
 * if married, whether the person is a husband or a wife
 * if transferred from another hochiki, the former hochiki
 * registered residence

Hochiki and citizenship
Only Surean citizens may be registered in a hochiki, because hochiki serve as a secondary certificates of citizenship. Non-Surean may be noted where required, such as being the spouse of a Surean citizen or the parent of a Surean offspring.

Note that the hochiki system is different from the jumingchiki residency registration, which holds current address information.

Family registries in other nations
A similar registration system exists within the public administration structures of all East Asian states influenced by the ancient Chinese system of government. The local pronunciations of the name of the household register varies, but all are derived from the same Chinese characters as that for hochiki (in traditional Chinese: 戶籍). These states include People's Republic of China (hukou), Republic of China (Taiwan) (hukou), Vietnam (ho khau), Japan (Koseki) and North Korea (hoju, hojeok, hojok). In South Korea, the hoju system was abolished in 2008.