JONAN, Kumamoto -- A local government employee has been suspended for failing to process family registries, including a birth report, local officials said.

The Jonan Municipal Government has announced it has suspended the 47-year-old male employee from work for six months after he neglected his duties between fiscal 2004 and 2006.

The local government is in discussion with the local legal affairs bureau of the Justice Ministry over how to deal with the unprocessed family registration cases.

"We wonder if he was too busy to deal with the registrations. He seems unaware that he failed to process them," said a representative of the municipal government.

The employee, who belonged to the family register section, failed to process nine family registration reports -- including those on birth, death, marital status and nationality, city officials said.

His delinquency surfaced after he was transferred to another section in April and his successor discovered unprocessed documents while sorting out papers.

In the case of a boy whose birth report had not been processed, his parents were later forced to change one of the Chinese characters in his name after the employee had mistakenly told his parents that the use of the original character was permitted without confirming when his birth report was filed.

The parents of the boy were reportedly shocked at the decision, saying, "Our son has used the name for over two years."

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