Ministry of Justice by mistake discarded documents from 902 people - applications for naturalization to Japan etc.

 Recently NHK News On-line reported the following:

法務省 日本への帰化申請書類など902人分を誤って廃棄

2020年8月21日 20時33分

法務省は、外国人が日本国籍を取得する際の書類を電子化する作業に漏れがあり、902人分の書類を誤って電子化せずに廃棄していたと発表しました。

法務省によりますと、外国人が日本国籍を取得する際の申請書や決裁文書などの書類は、保存するために業者に委託して電子化していますが、ことし6月、過去の記録を参照しようとした法務局からの指摘で、書類を電子化する作業に漏れがあることが分かったということです。

その後、法務省で調査した結果、平成4年から平成25年までの間に、申請の手続きを行った、合わせて902人分の書類を誤って電子化せずに廃棄していたということです。

法務省は、廃棄していた書類のうち、申請を受け付けた各地の法務局などでコピーが残っている場合は、電子化して保存するとしていて、「大変遺憾なことであり、適正な文書管理により再発防止を徹底する」としています。

Translation

The Ministry of Justice announced that there were omissions when they performed the digitization of documents during acquisition of Japanese nationality by foreigners, and 902 documents were accidentally discarded without digitization.

According to the Ministry of Justice, documents such as application forms and approval documents regarding foreigners acquiring Japanese nationality were outsourced to a contractor to save them electronically; but in June when the Legal Bureau tried to refer to past records, it was pointed out that there was a leak in the processing of digitizing documents.

After that, as a result of an investigation by the Ministry of Justice, it was found that between 1992 and 2013, when the application procedures were being dealt with, a total of 902 documents were discarded without being digitized.

The Ministry of Justice said that if there was a copy of the discarded documents at the Legal Affairs Bureau etc. where the application was received, it would be digitized and saved; and supposed that “this is very regrettable, and we will thoroughly prevent recurrence through proper document management."

              So, I hope the 902 discarded applications will be followed up accordingly.