'Japanese-style Names' Still in Official Registers like Land Ledgers... All Will Be Removed

Joint Maintenance by Government and Local Governments... Promoting 'Erasing Japanese Names from Public Registers'
56,079 Cases Maintained Based on Local Government Survey Results Since June Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 28th that it will promote the 'Erasing Japanese Names from Public Registers' project in collaboration with the Public Procurement Service and local governments to eliminate remnants of Japanese colonial rule.

This project involves systematically revising approximately 56,000 cases where Japanese-style names remain in public registers such as land and forest registers and certified copies of registries.

To this end, local governments conducted investigations from June to November last year on about 880,000 parcels, examining records of name changes during the colonial period in old land and forest registers, family register extracts, and certified copies of registries. Based on the results, the parcels were classified into categories such as register maintenance (10,344 cases), name change corrections (45,735 cases), public property (587 cases), and transfer to the Public Procurement Service (31,829 cases).

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport analyzed the investigation results from local governments and selected a total of 56,079 parcels for maintenance, notifying the respective local governments. Each local government is currently revising the public registers accordingly.

Under this 'Erasing Japanese Names from Public Registers' project, if a certified copy of a registry is registered with a Japanese-style name but there is no land register due to land development projects, the certified copy will be canceled to remove the Japanese-style name from the public register.

Additionally, for lands with clearly identified name changes during the colonial period, local governments will recommend the restoration and correction of the owner's name to the Korean name to update the records. If the property is suspected to be an inherited asset, it will be transferred to the Public Procurement Service for on-site investigations and in-depth examinations, followed by nationalization procedures.

Nam Young-woo, Director of Land Information Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, “Inheriting the spirit of the March 1st Movement, we will earnestly promote joint maintenance to eliminate remnants of Japanese colonial rule remaining in daily life and to restore national identity through setting history right.”