An American by birth, K.M. found the inquiry in our Oct. 20 column about koseki tohon, or family registration, very interesting.

"My case is not relevant to the one under discussion, as the young man is only 18 and is dealing with issues that arose after the law was changed, but I wonder if there may be other readers — looking for someone or some family history — who may have issues that go further back, before the law was revised."

When K married 32 years ago (1977), a man marrying a foreign woman then could not, by law, leave his father's koseki and set up a new one of his own.