Old Land and Forest Registers with Japanese-style Chinese Characters, 54,000 Pages Converted Entirely into Korean Language over 6 Months... First in Seoul Autonomous District... Lee Soon-hee, Gangbuk District Mayor, "Laying the Foundation for Resident Services to Easily Access Land Data"
Gangbuk-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Soon-hee) announced on the 9th that it has succeeded in converting all the Japanese-style Chinese characters in the old land and forest registers into Hangul. This is the first case among the 25 autonomous districts of Seoul.
The land and forest registers are representative basic data of land administration, recording landowners, lot numbers, land categories, areas, and land descriptions. They are used throughout cadastral work, including resolving ownership disputes, tracing ancestral land, and investigating land change histories.
However, due to the influence of the Japanese colonial period during the 1910 land survey, the registers were recorded using Japanese era names such as Meiji (明治), Taisho (大正), and Showa (昭和), and handwritten in Chinese characters, making character recognition and content understanding difficult. This has caused difficulties for both civil petitioners and officials. Moreover, there have been ongoing criticisms that these registers represent remnants of Japanese colonial rule.
In response, the district office began a project to convert the land and forest registers into Hangul in May of this year, and within about six months succeeded in converting all 54,000 pages into Korean. The district interpreted the land and owner information written in Chinese characters into Hangul and converted all Japanese era names into Gregorian calendar years.
While basic local governments are either implementing or planning projects to convert land and lease registers into Hangul, Gangbuk-gu has attracted attention as the first to convert 100% of the registers entirely into Korean.
Through this project, the district has laid the foundation for developing integrated real estate information services and established an efficient database capable of supporting restoration projects in the event of natural disasters, fires, and other emergencies. After a pilot operation, civil services are expected to be provided following consultations with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Lee Soon-hee, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, “The success of converting the old land and forest registers into Hangul has laid the cornerstone for residents to more easily use land administrative data,” and added, “With improved administrative efficiency, we will provide high-quality cadastral services to our residents in the future.”
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