Chōsen-seki is a convention made by the Japanese government to register Korean residents in Japan shortly after the Surrender of Japan as if they had been stateless. The Korean people originally had Japanese citizenship during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula. However, their Japanese citizenship was later revoked by Japanese government, after Japan surrendered and gave up sovereignty over Korea, first practically in 1947 under Edict of Foreigner Registration of Allied Occupied Japan, then finally and formally, in 1952 in consequence of San Francisco Treaty. In 1947, Koreans were still technically of Japanese citizenship although, Edict of Foreigner Registration Article 11 told to consider them as foreigners. Hence, the Koreans who then resided in Japan were registered as "of Chōsen" according to their geographical origin as substitution of nationality. Since 1950s, after the foundation of South Korea in 1948 and its diplomatic actions to the Allied and later Japan, those Koreans have been able to reprocess their foreigner registration in Japan as South Korean nationals willingly. On the other hand, Koreans either who have been affiliated to North Korea or who have not renewed their registration data, they have remained in Chōsen-seki, in Japan practically as stateless.
Legal issues
On September 30, 2010, the Seoul High Court declared that an ethnic Korean from Japan with Chōsen-seki status is not a South Korean citizen and can be refused an entrance visa to South Korea. Japan delegates family law issues involving foreigners to the foreigners' home country. For example, Zainichi registered as South Korean have their wills determined by South Korean law. Chōsen-seki holders are arbitrarily assigned the family law of North or South Korea depending on whether they used the word "Chōsen" or "Kankoku" in official registration documents, as well as other considerations. Recently it has become more common to refer to South Korean law because it is easier to use. When North Korean law is employed, the court is often forced to fall back on Japanese law due to renvoi.
