Ward office (ward office)

Monday - Friday, 8:45 a.m. - 5 p.m.
2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month, 9 a.m. - noon (open even if Saturday falls on a national holiday)
Ward offices are closed on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturdays of the month, national holidays, holidays in lieu of national holidays, citizen's holidays, and the New Year holiday season (December 29 - January 3).

You can undertake a range of procedures at ward offices, such as family register-related procedures for when moving house, getting married or divorced, procedures for processing taxes, and procedures for using childcare services.

Call your ward office switchboard or public works office and state the nature of your inquiry. You will then be put through to the appropriate department.

Family Registry Division (family registers, resident certificates, seal registration, etc.), Health Insurance and Pension Division (National Health Insurance, National Pension Plan, etc.), and some services in the Children and Families Support Division (application and receipt of child allowance, issuance of Mother and Child Health Handbooks).
Some services which require inquiries with other cities and organizations may not be available.

Ward offices comprise of the following departments.
In order to provide citizens with high quality administrative services, if needed ward offices are partially restructured in terms of organization to reflect the local characteristics of wards, etc. As such, the following information shows the standard organization of ward offices.
'- General Affairs Division: General affairs, budgeting and accounting, disaster prevention, election-related matters, issuance of automobile number plates, etc.
'- Ward Administration Promotion Division: Planning and progress control for major projects, general coordination, promotion of cooperation, public relations and public hearings, disclosure of information, etc.
'- Community Promotion Division: Neighborhood association, traffic safety, crime prevention, lifelong learning, promotion of culture and sports, management and administration of facilities, reduction of garbage volumes, etc.
'- Family Registry Division: Notification of births, marriages and deaths, notification of moving in or out, resident certificates, seal registration, issuance of national identification number cards, transfer and admission to elementary and junior high schools, etc.
'- Tax Division: Filing of individual municipal tax, taxation and income certificates, appraisal and taxation of land and houses, payment of municipal tax, etc.
'- Ward Office of Accounting: Revenue and expenditure concerning public funds, etc.
'- Health and Welfare Division: Welfare commissioners and commissioned child welfare volunteers, promotion of community health and welfare, vaccinations, cancer screening, dental health, health consultations, dietary improvements, etc.
'- Health Sanitation Division: Business licenses for restaurants, etc., food poisoning prevention, applications for hairdressing, etc., pest control, etc.
'- Elderly and Disabled Support Division: Health and welfare services for the elderly, health and welfare services for the disabled, processing of a range of disability allowances, etc.
'- Children and Families Support Division: Child-rearing support work, Mother and Child Health Handbooks, child allowances, medical checkups for infants, day-care centers, after-school child care and development, etc.
'- Public Assistance Division: Consultations and decision-making concerning public assistance, self-reliance support for the socially vulnerable, etc.
'- Health Insurance and Pension Division: National Health Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance, Advanced Elderly Medical Service System, medical subsidies for infants and children etc., National Pension Plan, etc.
'- Public Works Office: Maintenance and operation of roads, sewage systems, rivers, and parks, etc.

Parking lots at ward offices are often full, so please use public transportation when visiting your ward office.

Parking fees apply at ward offices. These fees differ at each ward office.
In some cases, you may receive free parking depending on your reason for visiting the ward office, such as to complete certain procedures, a consultation, medical checkup for infants, etc. For more information, please call your ward office.

Yokohama Association for International Communications and Exchanges (YOKE) provides a dispatch service for volunteer interpreters to assist non-Japanese residents of Yokohama City. You can request an interpreter to help with procedures at ward offices, meetings at municipal schools and kindergartens, etc. For more details, please visit the YOKE website.
　 https://www.tagengo.yokeweb.com/ejtsuyaku (external site) (external link)