It looks like the city’s four branch office annexes (Koshikiiwa, Nishinomiyahama, Takasu, and Namaze) are going to be abolished.
西宮市は証明書発行を行っていた分室(越木岩、西宮浜、高須、塩瀬)を廃止することを決定しました。
At the December 2024 City Council meeting, during my general question requesting 10-yen certificate issuance, I called for these annexes to be abolished due to their declining necessity.
We apologize for the inconvenience, but please try using your My Number Card to obtain certificates!
— Ryusuke Sakamoto, Nishinomiya City Council Member, Liberal Democratic Party (@skmt_ryusuke) May 18, 2026
City council member Sakamoto posted on X that the annexes are being abolished.
Images in this article are quoted from Statistical Survey Results | Nishinomiya City Website
The city’s statistical survey results state that “the abolition date is the end of December 2026.”
目次
What exactly is an annex office?
Have you ever thought that City Hall is far away and a hassle to get to?
Nishinomiya City has satellite counters called “branch offices,” “service centers,” and “annex offices.”
Roughly speaking, a branch office is like a mini city hall for the local area, a service center is a convenient counter for commonly used procedures, and an annex office mainly handles issuing certificates such as residence records and family register documents.
So if your errand involves moving procedures, National Health Insurance, taxes, allowances, and so on, you would use a branch office or service center; if you only need to get a certificate, you would use an annex office.
About the abolition of the four branch office annexes
As of May 2026, Nishinomiya City has four annex offices, and apparently all of them are scheduled to be abolished.
Which annex offices will be abolished?
Koshikiiwa
Here is the location↓
The address is 1F Koshikiiwa Hall, 2-29 Horakucho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo.
Nishinomiyahama
Here is the location↓
The address is inside Nishinomiyahama Community Center, 4-13-1 Nishinomiyahama, Nishinomiya, Hyogo.
Takasu
Here is the location↓
The address is 2-1-35 Takasucho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo.
Namaze
Here is the location↓
The address is inside Namaze Civic Hall, 2-20-22 Namazecho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo.
Why?
There are several reasons, but the main ones are “a decline in users” and “an increase in convenience store issuance”. It seems the number of certificates issued at convenience stores has tripled in about eight years.
コンビニで証明書交付、したことある？
Here’s what the number of annex office users looks like↓
They’re all on a downward trend…
When will this happen?
As of now, the offices are scheduled to close at the end of this year.
What will no longer be available after the abolition?
These are the main documents that were issued at the annex offices. After the offices are abolished, you can obtain them at convenience stores and other locations using your My Number Card. Of course, you can still get them at branch offices or City Hall as well.
- Complete family register certificates, individual family register certificates, and family register supplementary records (for those whose registered domicile is in Nishinomiya City)
- Copies of residence records
- Seal registration certificates
Finally
For people who live near one of these annex offices, this is probably a bit of disappointing news. If you have a My Number Card, you can easily get certificates at convenience stores, so maybe this is just the way things are moving. It really feels like digitization is continuing to advance.
