Japanese man acquitted of creating family trees without a licence

The Supreme Court has acquitted a man of producing family trees for fees without a licence, overturning a lower court ruling that had sentenced him to a suspended prison term, it has been learned. Yusuke Hanaka, 28, a caretaker from Ozora, Hokkaido, was found not guilty of violating the Administrative Scrivener Law by charging his clients for family trees that he produced for them even though he was not qualified as an administrative scrivener.

The First Petty Bench of the top court on Dec. 20 dismissed a lower court ruling that had sentenced Hanaka to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, before acquitting him of violating the law. The Administrative Scrivener Law prohibits the production of documents pertaining to certification of facts, such as survey drawings and accounting books, for business purposes without a licence. The Supreme Court for the first time ruled that the production of family trees for the sake of clients' appreciation or commemoration does not constitute the documentation of facts that is only allowed for administrative scriveners. Many administrative scriveners have recently capitalized on producing family trees as part of their businesses.



Hanaka had advertised family tree productions on the Internet and in other media since 2004, receiving 30 to 40 orders over the course of three years. He sold the family trees in scrolls, fetching a maximum of 1 million yen per scroll. At issue was whether the family trees that Hanaka produced were tantamount to documents for certifying facts. The lower courts ruled that the family trees he produced were based on family registries of his clients and therefore constituted documentation of facts. However, the top court determined that the family trees were not meant for any external use as attested documents.

Between 2006 and 2007, Hanaka illicitly obtained the copies of his clients' family registers from local governments by using exclusive papers that he had purchased from two administrative scriveners - who later shut down their businesses and were fined, according to the indictment. Overall, Hanaka produced family trees for six clients for some 900,000 yen in total before he was indicted for his actions. Under the Family Registration Law before its revision in 2007, there were no penalties for obtaining the copies of family registers by illicit means.