Quoting Jeanne Hedge <jhedge@enteract.com>:

 >Technically, given a late night impromptu marriage 

ceremony, in Japan

 >they're not married until a marriage certificate is 

filed in a government

 >office (which wouldn't be open at the time of the 

ceremony).  So he

 >should be saying something like:  "Say yes, I tear 

this up; say no,

 >and we file them with the government together."

There was an article in the January 4 edition of "The 

Japan Times Online"

about a drunken guard at the Itami Municipal Office 

put a not letting

people in to submit their marriage certificates. This 

happened shortly

after midnight on January 1.  According to the 

article, by law all

procedures relating to marriage and household 

register applications must be

carried out on a 24-hour basis, and so the city 

offices related to these

things are also open 24 hours.  As I'm sure you know, 

people don't have to

be married elsewhere and then come to the office to 

file their papers if

they are in a hurry or otherwise don't want to 

because they can be married

in these city offices too.

So, it's incorrect to say that the government office 

to file marriage

certificates wouldn't be open at the time of the 

ceremony, because it would

have been, by law.

Here's a reference to the newspaper article:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?

nn20030104a3.htm

Interesting!  Yet another bit of info I did not know
about Japanese laws and procedures regarding marriage.
It probably would have never occurred to me to research
this particular area, in fact; I just assumed the
relevant office held normal office hours.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!


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