Daycare papers for a foreign family: the employment form, ID, and a missing tax record

Licensed daycare (保育園, hoikuen) starts with papers, not an interview. The city or ward certifies that you need care (保育の必要性の認定, hoiku no hitsuyōsei no nintei) and then ranks the household. A manager's letter, a residence card (在留カード, zairyū kādo) on its own, or a year with no Japanese tax return will not stand in for the set below.

Two fiscal-2027 guides were read: Kawasaki city's (川崎市) and Koto ward's (江東区). Dates and form names are theirs. Another ward prints its own list.

The trap when you have no Japanese tax record

Kawasaki scores and bills from resident tax (市民税, shiminzei). The guide states:

市民税が未申告の方は、利用調整において最高所得の世帯と判定し、保育料が最高階層（最高額）となります。

That is the highest band, which the fee notes call C25, until you file and submit a resident-tax certificate (住民税課税（非課税）証明書) by the application deadline. Income of zero still needs a filing. A special-collection slip from an employer (特別徴収税額通知書) is not accepted.

If you lived outside Kawasaki on 1 January 2026, the Reiwa 8 (2026) certificate from the municipality that taxed you is required. It must show income. For a December 2026–March 2027 start the tax year differs; the city says to use the previous year's guide for that window.

If anyone in the household worked or lived overseas at any time in calendar 2025, Kawasaki also wants an overseas-income declaration (海外収入申告書) and copies of pay records issued by the local employer: a pay certificate or the local tax filing. Foreign currency counts the same as yen. Domestic income needs its own papers as well.

Koto's rule is the same idea, aimed at people who were not on any Japanese resident register on 1 January 2026. The example in the guide is a household that was living overseas. You file the ward's pay certificate (給与支払証明書) for the relevant year, or, if the employer cannot issue it or the year had no income, an annual-income declaration (年間収入申告書). Koto states:

税の未申告や書類の未提出で住民税の確認ができない場合、優先順位９番において、最高額で判定します。

People who moved into Koto on or after 2 January 2026 are normally checked through My Number (マイナンバー). Refusing that link, or a record it cannot see, can still mean the ward asks for a certificate.

What every household files

Kawasaki, for each child, from the Reiwa 9 forms (old forms are not the default; the city says the employment-certificate layout changes for April 2027 applications, and an old form is still accepted):

Paper	What a foreign family should notice
Education/childcare benefit application, and the use application / child record	My Number on both. Up to 20 daycares, only ones you can actually travel to.
Confirmation sheet	You sign that you have read the conditions.
My Number card or notification card, plus identity papers	Shown at the counter. Posted applications need copies on the city's mount. A photo ID can be a passport (旅券). Two non-photo IDs if you have no photo ID.
Proof that care is needed, for each parent	The city's employment certificate (就労証明書, shūrō shōmeisho) for a job, including telework. Self-employment adds a schedule and proof of the business.

Koto uses its own ward forms, addressed to the Koto mayor. The employment certificate has to be that form. For identity at the My Number check, one photo document is enough. The ward's list names the residence card and the special permanent-resident certificate (特別永住者証明書) next to a passport and a licence. Two non-photo documents if you have no photo ID. A residence card proves who you are. It does not prove income, and it does not replace the employment certificate.

Koto accepts an employment certificate, a return-to-work certificate, and a doctor's note only if the date of the certificate is within three months. Older than that, the ward will not take it. Kawasaki's issue-date window for an April 2027 application is September 2026 or later. For a start from May 2027, the certificate must be dated within three months before the 1st of the month you want.

Both parents file. Kawasaki also wants the same papers from any relative under 65 who lives with you. A relative who will be 65 or older on the start date is exempt.

What to do, and by when

Kawasaki's April 2027 first round: online from Sunday 11 October 2026 to 17:00 on Monday 26 October; postmark 13–26 October; counter on weekdays through Friday 6 November. A certificate dated before September 2026 is outside that round's window. Online filing reads the My Number card, so separate ID copies are not attached. You need the card, the Mynaportal app, and the signature PIN. Attachments are capped at about 9 MB.

Koto's April 2027 post and electronic window runs from Tuesday 13 October 2026 to Thursday 19 November 2026 (electronic applications must arrive by 23:59 that day). Extra papers for the first round are accepted until Wednesday 2 December 2026. That date is also the day the ward scores the file.

If you are still abroad, or you were abroad in the tax year, build the overseas-income file before the deadline. Koto tells overseas arrivals to apply to Koto directly, by post or electronic filing.

Submitted originals are not handed back. Kawasaki says a later copy for Hello Work is, in principle, a paid personal-information request and usually takes about two weeks. Copy the set first. A postal Kawasaki application also needs a reply envelope (長形3号) with a 110 yen stamp.

What it costs

Neither guide prints an application fee. A missing tax filing costs you the top of the ranking and, in Kawasaki, the top fee band until the certificate arrives. Overseas income is added into the estimate Kawasaki uses for the fee. In Koto the same papers still set the extended-hours charge and the tie-break.

What goes wrong

• A company letterhead instead of the city's or ward's employment certificate.
• No tax return and no declaration, so you are scored as the highest income.
• Overseas pay left out, or one parent omitted.
• In Kawasaki, a relative under 65 in the home with no papers.

The certification notice is not a promise of a place.

What to do now

1. Download this year's form, not last year's.
2. Have payroll complete the employment certificate inside the date window. If you were outside Japan in the tax year, collect the local pay proof now.
3. File resident tax even at zero income, and copy every page before you submit.
4. If your ward is not one of these two, ask that office for its own list.