[IP] "deleted" children in Japan

[R.A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


 From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
 Subject: [IP] "deleted" children in Japan
 Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 05:56:48 -0400
 To: ip at v2.listbox.com
 Reply-To: dave at farber.net



 Begin forwarded message:

 From: Rodney Van Meter <rdv at sfc.wide.ad.jp>
 Date: May 30, 2007 10:44:22 PM EDT
 To: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
 Subject: "deleted" children in Japan

 Dave,

 I'm trying not to wear out my welcome on IP, but if you wish...

 This tidbit bothers me because it speaks to the entire future of our
 history in the world in which "If Google can't find it, it doesn't
 exist."

 A little background: in Japan, you don't have a birth certificate.  Each
 family has a family registry, and children who are born are entered into
 the registry.  I think the same holds for proof of marriage.  Generally,
 the registry has a family name on it (just one -- making it difficult
 for women to keep their maiden names, but that's not the point here) and
 a head of household.  Then underneath that are the members of the
 household -- wife and kids.  Normally, kids stay on their parents'
 registry until they marry or the parents die.  When you marry, you move
 off your parents' registry and start your own.  You do your registration
 at the city office, but it's a national registry run by the Justice
 Department.

 In the normal progress of things, of course, the last entry for each
 child is a notation that they moved off of this registry and onto
 another one.  But if a child dies, then a notation is made of that fact.

 An article in yesterday's Daily Yomiuri
 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/20070530TDY02009.htm
 says that they are still in the process of digitizing the registry, and
 that some deceased children are being "deleted" in the process, simply
 to keep down the amount of data input work (which undoubtedly has to be
 done by hand).

 While it certainly makes sense to prioritize the digitization of
 currently-active families, as opposed to the historical records of
 deceased grandparents whose registers consist of no one alive, this
 choice has the effect of creating an apparently complete registry of an
 active family that portrays an inaccurate picture of the family history.

 > From the article:

 According to the [Justice] ministry, the names of family members who
 died before the digitization have been included on the original hard
 copy of the family registry as one who has been "removed." But the
 names, the ministry said, have been stricken from the data files.

 The reasoning behind this was an attempt to reduce the data input into
 the system--by even only a bit--during the digitization process. Family
 members who died following the move of data files are still represented
 in the electronic registers.

 "You've got it backward if you think digitizing family registers will
 result in more work," a ministry official said. "Even if the name of the
 deceased disappears from the data, you can still see it on the original,
 so it isn't a problem."

 ---

 "isn't a problem"!  A hundred years from now no one will know that the
 families in question ever *had* children.  Looking at a particular
 digital record, you wouldn't even know to *ask* to see the original hard
 copy.  Statistics on births and deaths from various causes will no doubt
 be skewed, let alone the impact on geneology.

 While it seems likely that eventually they will get around to digitizing
 historical records, this particular gap in the data seems unlikely to be
 fixed -- or even fixABLE, without a second by-hand check of every
 registry comparing the original hard copy with the digitized version.

 There are gaps in my family history where e.g. the courthouse holding
 birth certificates burned down.  But at least we *know* that there are
 gaps.

 Is this a bigger loss than, oh, say, the burning of the library at
 Alexandria, or the one at Bukhara (~650 and again 1920), or the burning
 of Mayan texts by the Spanish?  Nah.  But I mourn the loss of every
 bit(!) of our collective history.

 		--Rod




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--- end forwarded text


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'