Becoming legally Japanese

Me, the illegal alien overstaying Japanese citizen

2012-01-13T15:10:00.000+09:00

I travel, for business, a lot. I travel so much that the idea of a Japanese passport was appealing to me because it would simplify my travel compared to using a U.S. passport from a Japan base. (ex. visas to India take longer to process if you apply as a non-Japanese in Japan, and it's harder for Americans to get into China than Japanese. I can now also indulge in Cuban cigars and rum if I choose to vacation there). I have Chinese friends that naturalized to Japanese for professional reasons; it is too hard to travel for business on a PRC passport, they say.

From a qualifications for Japanese citizenship point of view, my biggest concern was that I spent too many days outside of Japan to count years as "consecutive years of residence". Spend more than 100 days continuous or 150 days total outside of Japan and it doesn't count as a "year of residence". Likewise, I carefully watch the calendar to make sure I don't spend more than a month total in the U.S. on business trips, otherwise I lose my 2555 Foreign Income Exclusion exemption from U.S. taxes. U.S. citizens have to file and in some cases pay taxes regardless of where they live in the world every year. Obviously, I passed the residency requirement for naturalization.

After months of waiting, I got the call on my phone regarding the approval of my naturalization during a time when I least expected it. I expected it would take more time because I was in regular communication with the Ministry of Justice. The reason I was in regular communication was because while waiting for your naturalization to be approved, you're supposed to call your local bureau and caseworker every time you have a life changing event (job change, marriage, divorce, birth, death) or you enter/leave Japan. Because I enter and leave Japan often, I had my personal public servant, Mr. Kobayashi, starred in my phone's contacts for ease of dialing. The conversations usually went something like this:

"Nationality Section? Yes, Mr. Kobayashi please."
"Your case number please."
"1279."
"One moment please [ hold music ] Nationality section's Kobayashi speaking. This in Mr. Inoue, correct?"
"Hello, Mr. Kobayashi, as I stated before, I've returned. On schedule."
"Welcome back! Same flight details?"
"Yep, no change. By the way, I'll be flying again next month."
"Okay. Give us a call right before you leave again please."
"Sure thing. By the way, how's my application going?"
"Haven't heard anything yet. If something was wrong, I would've heard something, so don't worry. I'll call you as soon as I get word."
"Thanks!"

During my wait, I was booked to travel to a few countries, with layovers in Narita and Haneda. With a week before this travel, I received a call from the Bureau of Legal Affairs from Kobayashi-san.

"Great news! You've been approved! You're now Japanese! When can you come and pick up your 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no mibunshōmeisho}
(proof of identity of naturalized person)?"
"Um, is there any way we we can postpone my naturalization for a few weeks until I return from all my travel?"
"What? Er... sorry, no. It's a done deal."
"How long will it take to get a Japanese passport?"
"Expedited? Probably one week. But to get a Japanese passport, you'll first need a 戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon}
(certified copy of a Japanese family register). Creating that by using the 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no mibunshōmeisho}
as the breeder document at your local 区役所 {kuyakusho}
(ward office) takes anywhere from ten to fifteen business days, even expedited."
"Can I travel using my U.S. passport until I get my Japanese passport?"
"Um, I'm not sure. I'm not immigration. I just do Japanese nationality. Given how much you travel, I recommend you get your Japanese passport as quickly as possible."

So I go to the 法務局 {hōmukyoku} (Bureau of Legal Affairs), pick up my 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no mibunshōmeisho} (proof of identity of naturalized person) without any ceremony because I'm in a hurry and they only do the ceremony once a month apparently, and thank Mr. Kobayashi for all his help. He's really beaming, telling me "congratulations" and bowing and admitting that I was his first American to process. After going through the formalities, I immediately make a beeline for the ward office before closing and go through all the processes to convert me over to Japanese using my breeder document: the deletion of my Alien records and the return of my ARC (alien registration card), the creation of my 住民票 {jūminhyō} (local Japanese resident registration) and the creation of my corresponding 住基カード {jūki kādo} (local Japanese resident id card), which can prove nationality as they're only issued to citizens. The problem was my 戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon}. I put on my naturalization application that I wanted my 本籍 {honseki} (domicile) that stored my family register to be in Ōsaka City because that's where I spent my early years in Japan, it's where I met my wife, and it's where her family register was, so the place had special meaning to me as my "origin" in Japan. Your 本籍 {honseki} (domicile) can be any legal address (down to block level) in Japan, regardless of where you actually live. The problem is that if your domicile isn't in the same place where you actually live, they need to forward any requests, creations, or changes to it from your local ward office via postal mail. So expediting it was not possible. No expedited family register means no expedited passport. I spent the remainder of the day going to the local police station to update my driver's license, changing the name to my new legal name in kanji and digitally changing the 本籍 {honseki} (domicile) from United States of America to 大阪府大阪市 {Ōsaka-fu Ōsaka-shi} (Ōsaka Prefecture, Ōsaka City) inside the RFID chip. For privacy reasons, the 本籍 {honseki} (domicile) is stored digitally encrypted with two PINs in Japanese licenses, but is no longer printed on the card.

The next week, I go to the airport to see if I am allowed to leave the country on a U.S. passport. I am enrolled in the automated gate system, which means my "alien" SoR — status of residence: 永住者 {eijūsha} (permanent resident) — and the corresponding 数次再入国許可 {sūji sai-nyūkoku kyoka} (multiple reentry permit) that allows me to leave and enter without losing my SoR, as well as my fingerprints, are stored in a computer system. The only thing the immigration officer does is process the embarkation/disembarkation card for alien re-entrants and ask if one wants a physical ink stamp in the passport — which is optional for auto-gate users.

I scanned my U.S. passport and fingerprints, hoping for the best. No problem. Let me through. "Oh, cool, that's convenient" I thought. My 数次再入国許可 {sūji sai-nyūkoku kyoka} (multiple reentry permit) for my permanent residency status, which is registered with the auto-gates, was still valid. Probably until the expiration date. Of course, I knew I wouldn't be able to renew it, but for now, it helped me solve the problem of traveling while I waited for my Japanese passport. I'd just apply when I got back from traveling.

I should've known it wouldn't be that simple. Arriving back at Narita, I go through the automated gates again. The computer shows me a screen I've never seen before. "Please scan the QR code on your reentry permit." Uh oh. So I scan it anyway, hoping for the best. The next error message: "Please see an official for assistance."

The official comes over after being auto-paged, thinking I'm a noob that doesn't know how to operate the machine. He guides me through the process. Same result. He examines all the pages of my passport, and tells me to try again. Same error. He punches in a password for the admin screen, and this time he tells me to scan the 1D bar code on the back of the reentry embarcation card (I never noticed that before, by the way). Still, an error.

"Please wait right over there." He points to the bench by the diplomat/crew line, which is next to an open office. He goes into the office with my passport and gets behind a computer with yet another passport scanner connected to it. I'm watching him scan it, and I'm watching his facial expression as he reads the screen. I'm trying to determine if what he's seeing is giving him cause for alarm (terrorist, spy, wanted criminal), or disgust (visa violator, bogus passport etc). Fortunately, it's more of an expression of puzzlement / bewilderment. I watch him pick up the phone on his desk and call another person over for a second opinion. The second person comes, examines every page of the passport, then scans and punches some keys on the keyboard. Then I see the two point at various things on the screen, debate for a bit, pull out a manual from under the desk, look in the index, then read a page, pointing at various parts of the page, and discussing. The official returns about ten minutes later.

"Do you have Japanese citizenship?"
"Yes."
"Oh, thank goodness! That explains everything. You're supposed to use your Japanese passport. Can I see it please?"

I don't have it, so I explain my entire situation from the time of naturalization.

"Hmmm. Let's see what we can do. Do you have a Japanese driver's license?" Apparently, immigration can use a Japanese driver's license as a backup identity for weird edge cases like mine. But damn! I have one, and I even updated it so it proved I was Japanese, but I left it in my car at home! So I give him my 住基カード {jūki kādo} (local Japanese resident id card), which is also a digital RFID legal Japanese ID that can prove Japanese citizenship. He apologizes, and says yes, it is a valid ID, but their computers haven't been updated to handle those cards yet.

They let me through (they had to, but they didn't fine me or anything), but they warned, "please get your Japanese passport as quickly as possible."

"What happens if I have to travel again and I haven't gotten my passport yet?"
"When do you travel again?"
"Um, in five hours."
His eyes widen. "Just a moment please."

He discusses it again with his partner in the office. I'm worried, because the partner is shaking his head as they're flipping through thick procedure manuals again. He comes back ten minutes later.

"Go through the regular foreigner line. Whatever you do, don't use the re-entry line or the Japanese line. Use a regular embarcation/debarkation card for foreigners, not the ones for re-entry foreign residents."
"What will happen when the immigration officer sees the Permanent Resident or Re-Entry stamp in my U.S. passport?"
"We're not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?! You are immigration! I want an authoritative answer!" is what part of me was thinking. The other part of me was thinking I just got the immigration break of the year and be sure to memorize these guys' id badges (so I can later point fingers and blame it on them if this all blows up in my face) while thanking them profusely for their exceptional flexibility.

The immigration officer then puts a foreign embarkation/debarkation (non re-entrant) card in my U.S. passport, tearing off the embarcation part and leaving the debarkation part in, and stamps my passport as if I had just entered Japan as a foreign tourist.

I clear immigration at Narita and take the shuttle to Haneda. I go through the foreigner (manual, non-automated) line. The official there takes the final debarkation part of the card out of the passport and stamps it again. No problems. No questions.

Coming back into Japan, I do as the Narita officials instruct me and complete an embarkation card for foreigners, but I'm getting nervous, because I haven't seen an embarkation card for regular tourists before, and there are questions on it that aren't on the re-entry version, such as "what is the purpose of your visit to Japan?" and "how many days do you plan to be in Japan?" Not wanting to lie, I leave those sections blank. They take my picture and digitally fingerprint me. No problems. They don't ask about the sections I left blank. There are no problems with the photo or digital fingerprinting either.

So I'm processed, no problems or questions whatsoever. I now have a still unused debarkation card for foreign vistors in my U.S. passport along with a 90 day temporary landing permit. This is amusing to me, because I've never been a tourist/visitor in Japan. Ever. From Day One in the early nineties I was on a work visa. This sticker/stamp is dated after a (still valid according to the sticker) re-entry permit and permanent resident sticker on the previous page. I finally get to be a tourist in Japan. After I was a permanent resident and am now legally Japanese.

In case you're wondering how an immigration officer could possibly let my weirdly stamped passport slip by, here's why: the reentry permit, which has a QR code and is recorded in a database, is digitally cancelled, even though there is no ink stamp saying "cancelled" or "void" or "used" on it. From immigration's point of view, I was a permanent resident who decided to prematurely cancel my multiple reentry permit and then leave the country, effectively canceling my permanent residency, for whatever reason (taxes?), then decided to visit again as a U.S. tourist. So the passport was not technically "out of order", though it was unusual. Most permanent residents do not abandon their status, as it's not easy to earn.

After getting some downtime from travel and finally getting a window to get my Japanese papers in order many months later, I call up Kobayashi and request that even though he claims to know little about immigration, could he please look into what happened?

He calls me back after a few weeks and says that basically, what happened was the Ministry of Justice contacted Immigration and digitally cancelled my 数次再入国許可 {sūji sai-nyūkoku kyoka} (multiple reentry permit) while I was overseas because I was Japanese and it no longer applied. What should have happened was they should have immediately digitally cancelled my 数次再入国許可 {sūji sai-nyūkoku kyoka} (multiple reentry permit) upon naturalizing me so there was no way I could have left the country using the automated gates with a foreign passport, bypassing the human passport-sanity check.

Kobayashi warned me to never use my U.S. passport at Japanese immigration again, because me, the U.S. citizen, was now recorded (digitally, including fingerprint biometrics) as being a tourist in Japan, who has now overstayed his legal welcome. "Will I get in trouble? Like a fine or anything?" I asked. "Probably not, because the MOJ and immigration made the original mistake. Your situation is very unusual. All the papers you presented were valid and presented in good faith. But it will be a big bureaucratic hassle and you'll probably have a very long day at airport immigration. And I wouldn't want you to miss your flight!" He laughed.

"Does this mean I can't use the automated gates as a Japanese because of the fingerprint check?"
"No, that shouldn't be a problem. The databases, for legal privacy reasons, are not connected."

So, the Japanese citizen version of me has the legal right to be in Japan no-ifs-or-buts-or-questions, but the American version of me — I am in the process of renouncing — is now technically an オーバーステー {ōbāsutē} (alien visa "overstayer").

I now have a Japanese passport, by the way.

Part of Nationality law reverted New Year's Eve

2012-01-05T14:04:00.003+09:00

This post isn't about naturalization to Japan. It's about the acquisition of nationality by birth to unmarried parents, one of whom has Japanese nationality and one who doesn't. But since this blog/site is called "Becoming legally Japanese", it fits, so we'll cover it.

Japan modified its nationality laws for three years: starting January 1st, 2009 and ending December 31st of 2011 last year. The new law said that if the father was Japanese, and acknowledged paternity, then the child could receive Japanese nationality even if they were never married.

This addresses a problem where a mother, who does not have Japanese nationality, had a child with a Japanese father, but was unable to secure Japanese nationality immediately after birth (or the reverse).

This process is different from naturalization. All you need to do is:

file the paperwork showing that the father or mother acknowledged paternity
Be a minor (under 20 years of age)
Never have previously been Japanese
The father or mother, alive or dead, must be or have been Japanese

This paperwork can be filed in Japan or overseas at a consulate or embassy.

The temporary amendment was known as Article 3 of the Nationality Law. More information can be found from a pamphlet in our documentation collection.

What visa should I first get before naturalization?

2012-01-04T02:44:00.000+09:00

Is there a status or visa you should have that gives you a better chance of being naturalized? Is it better to be on a "spousal visa" or be a "permanent resident" to increase your chances of being naturalized?

The answer is that it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that your status in Japan is and always has been proper: You've never overstayed your status; you've never forgotten to renew your status (even by one day); you've never worked on a status that doesn't permit work (including a temporary landing permit); you've never done work outside of your status' area (for example, engineering work on a humanities status).

Having permanent residency status, unlike many other countries, is not a prerequisite for naturalization.

Now, there are some status that may hint that you qualify for 簡易帰化 {kan'i kika} (simplified naturalization). For example:

家族滞在 {kazoku taizai} (living with family)
特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha} (special permanent resident)
日本人の配偶者等 {nihonjin no haigūsha nado} (spouse etc of a Japanese national)
定住者 {teijūsha} (long term resident)

If you have any of these statuses you probably have them because of a direct family tie or connection to Japan. Depending on the depth of that tie (measured in years), the residency requirement may be changed from five (5) down to three (3) or even one (1) year. Additionally, 特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha} (special permanent resident) are exempt from other requirements.

What kind of visa is naturalization?

2012-01-03T02:42:00.000+09:00

Naturalization is not a visa. There is no stamp in your passport. You don't even get an identification card that says you are Japanese (although you can apply for one). You're just a Japanese citizen. Forever. Until you die. And you're still considered to be a Japanese citizen after you die. Though a dead one.

We're only going to cover the most common case here for visas, as there are hundreds of combinations and cases and special rules for every circumstance and focusing on visas or permanent residency is outside of the scope of this site.

Permanent residency and special permanent residency in Japan, by the way, are also not "visas" — as you can't get them overseas — or status of residences, even though they look like status of residency stamps in your passport and they're usually listed with the other statuses on immigration web sites. Permant residency is only obtainable once you have a status of residence in Japan. You can skip being a permanent resident on your way to naturalization.

Visas are almost always obtained overseas. Modern visas in Japan are usually stickers which take up an entire page of the passport and have your expected status of residence, length, and a photo on them.

At immigration, they will probably mark your visa as "used" and put another sticker in your visa that is about a quarter of the size of a passport page marking you as having a status of residence in Japan, a date of issue, an expiration date, and a QR 2-D bar code for quick scanning (the older stamps from the nineties used 1-D plain bar codes) by immigration computers and unmanned automatic gates. To keep the status from being canceled if you leave Japan during your residency period, you'll need to get a re-entry permit, which looks just like a status of residence (it has a QR code). They will scan that QR code every time you come in Japan to verify it with their databases.

A permanent residency sticker looks just like a residency sticker except it's usually a different color (gray these days) and it has no expiration date on it. It also has a QR code.

When you naturalize, the Ministry of Justice will automatically contact Immigration (which is a division of the MoJ) and have them cancel your re-entry permit and/or the permanent residency or status of residence stickers you have/had in your non-Japanese passport, so when they're scanned at immigration by computers, an error will occur — even if the expiration date hasn't passed and they have no "void" or "used" stamp on them.

Automated gates at the airport

2011-12-31T06:30:00.002+09:00

There are five sets queues in the international airports in Japan: one for crew and diplomats/officials, one for non-Japanese, one for Japanese, one for non-Japanese with re-entry permits, and an automated gate for registered non-Japanese and Japanese. When lines are long, they may direct excess people in the Japanese line and the non-Japanese line into the less used Re-Entry line and Crew/Diplomat line. There is one line, however, that is rarely used and is the fastest: the automated gate.

Both non-Japanese and Japanese can pre-register their biometric identification to allow for faster processing at airport immigration. Unlike similar systems in the United States, the process is free and even available to non-permanent residents. This registration can be done at many Immigration bureaus, which is convenient for non-Japanese renewing the reentry or residency status stamps in their passport, or at the airport itself right before immigration check exiting the country. Registration is fast and involves filling out a simple form. Non-Japanese have a similar form with more information about their passport and residency status. Both of these forms are archived in the Docs page of this site.

Unlike many European e-Passports, modern Japanese e-Passports (that contain a RFID symbol and a chip in the middle of the passport with a digitally secure version of the main printed passport page) do not contain fingerprint biometric data; they only contain a digitized version of the photo on your passport.

The biometric data (photos & fingerprints etc.) for both foreign residents of Japan and Japanese are stored in the same database (which is a completely separate database from the alien registration database or other databases, and they cannot merge or share this data with other systems by law), so if you were previously registered for the Automated Gates as a foreign resident in Japan, you will need to unregister your previous record as a foreigner and re-register as a Japanese. You do this by bringing both passports upon applying for registration, at which time they'll scan your fingerprints and old passport, cancel the old registration digitally and physically — by stamping "CANCELLED" over the 日本国自動化ゲート利用希望者登録済 {nihonkoku jidōka gēto riyōsha tōrokuzumi} (Completed Registration for Desired Use of Automated Gates in Japan) stamp in the non-Japanese passport — then putting the same stamp in the back of your Japanese passport.

There are three differences between the use of non-automated gates between Japanese and non-Japanese: Japanese automated gate stamps expire at the end of the expiration of the passport (usually ten years), whereas the automated gate permit for foreigners expires at the end of the expiration of their status of residency or reentry permit. Secondly, foreigners do have to go through a secondary cursory passport handling after using the automated systems in order to process and collect the reentry card stapled in their passport and to optionally, at the resident's wish, receive an entry or departure stamp (the entry and departure is always recorded digitally). For Japanese, which have no embarkation or departure or reentry card, the entire process is unmanned, barring any technical difficulty. Thirdly, with some systems (for example, the automated gates in Terminal 2 of Narita International Airport), non-Japanese may have to scan the QR code on their reentry stamp or status of residence, and possibly the bar code on their reentry card as a technical backup if the QR code scan fails.

Going through the automated gate involved scanning the main page of your passport, followed by fingerprint verification, followed by a digital photograph being taken. It takes a maximum of 15 seconds. Non-Japanese need an additional 10 to 15 seconds to remove the reentry card from their passport by an official.

Can you renounce acquired Japanese citizenship?

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000+09:00

Yes. In fact, unlike many countries, the ability to renounce your Japanese citizenship and/or leave Japan is explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution of Japan:

第 {dai}22条 {jō}　何人も、 {nanibito mo,}公共の福祉に {kōtsū no fukushi ni}反しない限り、 {han shinai kagiri,}居住、移転及び {kyojū, iten oyobi}職業選択の自由 {shokugyō sentaku no jiyū}を有する。 {o yū suru.}
２　何人も、 {nanibito mo,}外国に移住し、 {gaikoku ni ijū shi,}又は国籍を離脱する {mata wa kokuseki o ridatsu suru}自由を侵されない。 {jiyū o okasarenai.}

Article 22: Every person shall have freedom to choose and change his residence and to choose his occupation to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare. 2) Freedom of all persons to move to a foreign country and to divest themselves of their nationality shall be inviolate.

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights also says everybody should have this right:

Article 15.

Everyone has the right to a nationality.

No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

While almost all democratic countries of the world have laws that allow for the renunciation of your citizenship, most of them do not have it written in their constitutions, and many of them have procedures that must be followed to renounce. Most of the time, these procedures and rules are for your own protection. For example, the United States forces you to be outside of the United States in order to renounce (except for the extremely rare case of a formally declared time of war), and will make it very, very hard for you to make yourself become stateless — though it is possible, as proven by Mike Gulgoski, who is currently destitute thanks to a poorly planned Bitcoin scheme and can't leave the country of Slovakia because he has no passport. They will also force you to go through a long process (about three embassy appointments) and pay a fee for the process, wait for many months, and then go through another process for taxes.

Japan is much easier, though, and has a simple form, the 国籍離脱届 {kokuseki ridatsu todoke} (nationality divestment form), that they can process fairly quickly at any embassy. Like other countries, the Japanese government will want to see proof that you possess another nationality. While of questionable practice from a Japanese Constitutional Law point of view, this is in the spirit of the U.N. Treaty on the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961.

Besides the possession of another nationality, you will also need an official copy of your family register (戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon}) and documentation that proves where you live (either domestic or foreign). Anything written in a foreign language will need to have a Japanese translation. Multiple copies of every document will need to be provided.

Renunciation applies only to yourself. Your children or spouse do not get renounced with you. Those not yet 15 years old must have permission from a parent or guardian. Yes, a sixteen year old can theoretically renounce their citizenship.

The only cases in the Nationality Law that are listed for the re-acquistion of Japanese nationality are for cases where a minor does not have their Japanese nationality reserved by their parents or, after a dual national reaches 22 years of age, is unable to be reached or reach Japan or its embassies (an example they list as an acceptable excuse is a natural disaster!) at the time of their deadline to make a Choice of Nationality (国籍選択の宣言 {kokusekisentaku no sengen}).

Thus, with the exception of that case, renunciation or loss of nationality should, like the United States, be considered irrevocable. That does not mean you can't obtain it (possibly again) via naturalization, but it's important to remember that naturalization is not a right, so there's no guarantee that you'll be accepted.

I couldn't find an example of a person who lost their nationality via renunciation then reacquired it again via naturalization (in Japan or the United States).

Plus Page replacing Friend Connect

2011-12-14T16:38:00.000+09:00

I've decided to clean up a few things on the site. First, I replaced the Google Friend Connect (which is now being deprecated on all site except for Blogger) in favor of a Google+ +Page, which I promise that I will keep more up to date than the Facebook page that I gave up on (our twitter account still reflects posts & comments). You should still be able to follow the site with the "Follow" option at the top of the page on the Blogger Navbar.

Just because the gadget is no longer on the page doesn't mean it will no longer work for you. Those that follow the site using GFC already shouldn't see any change.

Second, I got rid of the persistent Japanese textbook ads at the bottom of the page (affiliate network ads) because they made the site too slow.

Finally, I added a way to join the internal Google Group / mailing list from the Intro page. It is still moderated, and by invitation only, but the group has been useful in the past for helping people that were actually going through the naturalization process and had a lot of back and forth questions that couldn't be answered eloquently using comments in various posts. In order to write to that list, we will need to see that you are in the process of naturalization. To actually join it, you will need to be a naturalized citizen (all of the current members are).

There are a few other tweaks here and there (especially with viewing in mobile smart device mode), but they're not worth mentioning in a post.

I hope you enjoy the new look!

P.R.O. using Keene's naturalization as an example

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000+09:00

Keene's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star

Yesterday I was at the clinic for my annual full day physical, waiting between sessions (eye check, ear check, x-rays, ultrasound, etc.), flipping through an English Time Magazine (Asia edition). In it, I noticed a full page color advertisement sponsored by the Public Relations Office of the Japanese government.

It's a good read, but what I found interesting was that the Japanese government was using his naturalization as an inspirational example even though he technically hasn't received permission to naturalize yet.

Given that it would probably be very embarrassing not just for Keene but for the Japanese government if he were to not be accepted for naturalization, I think it's safe to say that the odds of Japan rejecting Keene are now very close to zero.

If you're wondering if the government will give him preferential treatment, you don't need to. Even for an ordinary citizen that hasn't received honors and medals from the Emperor himself, the odds that a successfully submitted 帰化許可申請書 {kika kyoka shinsei-sho} (Application for Naturalization Permission) will be rejected by Japan's MoJ (Ministry of Justice) is statistically less than 1%.

Based on what I know about naturalization, the only requirement that he can't (yet) clear is the residency requirement. Even with 簡易帰化 {kan'i kika} (simplified naturalization), which he will probably be cleared to do, he still needs one year of residency in Japan to qualify at the bare minimum, with "one year" being defined as not being out of Japan for more than 100 days consecutively and 150 days total. News stories about Keene always say he lively a dual-continent lifestyle, with six months (over 182 days) spent in the States and six months spent in Japan. If that's the case, he would not be able to count those years as a "year of residency".

I suspect what they will do is hold onto his application, pre-checking and pre-approving it, and putting the official approval date and stamp on it the day after he meets the minimum residency requirement.

As Donald Keene is 89 years old, and the average lifespan of an American male is 75.6 years old, I think the greatest challenge to Keene's naturalization will be a human being's natural human mortality, not anything related to his qualifications. I've said that Japan, given the fact that he may qualify as a bone fide national treasure, should just grant him 大帰化 {tai-kika} (extraordinary naturalization), bypassing all the requirements and giving him naturalization by majority vote of both houses of the Diet, in order to expedite the process and eliminate the need to clear the residency requirement.

While Donald Keene waits for naturalization approval, he has been busy sharing his lifetime of contributions. He just recently donated much of his personal collection and library of literature and artwork to Tokyo's municipal central library in Kita Ward (where he lives): over 600 pieces in total. In appreciation, the library is creating a special section in his name to show and share the works with the public.

The full page advertisement had a link to a website: www.recoveryinjapan.go.jp. On that website, you can see the page about Donald Keene, with the full text and graphics that were also in the Time Magazine. Interestingly, the one language that the website is not available in is Japanese!

Do you need to be in good health to naturalize?

2011-12-13T12:55:00.000+09:00

Some countries require you to submit your medical history and/or be in good health for naturalization. While Japan does require people that are applying for 永住権 {eijūken} (permanent residency) to be in good health, there is no such requirement for naturalization. Also, unlike many other countries, Japanese permanent residency status is not a prerequisite for obtaining Japanese citizenship.

In case you were wondering, the good health requirement for Japanese 永住権 {eijūken} (permanent residency) is defined with the following guideline:

公衆衛生上 {kōshū eisei jō}有害となる {yūgai to naru}おそれのある疾病 {osore no aru shippei}（梅毒その他 {baidoku sonota}伝染性疾患 {densensei shikkan}及び {oyobi}麻薬、覚醒剤等の中 {mayaku, kakuseizai nado no naka}毒性疾患 {dokusei shikkan}）に罹患していないこと。 {ni rikan shite inai koto.}健康診断書等を {kenkō shindan sho nado o}提出します。 {teishutsu shimasu.}

Which roughly translated / paraphrased, is:

Those who are not suffering from diseases that are harmful to the public health (including syphilis and other infectious diseases, as well as addictions to drugs such as stimulants or narcotics). You may have to present a health examination certificate.

There is no health requirement for 特別永住権 {tokubetsu eijūken} (Special Permanent Residency), which is not a status that is available to most immigrants anyway.

Prior to naturalizing, I had permanent residency status in Japan, but I was not required to submit any documentation related to my health when I applied, so I guess the requirement is at the discretion of the case worker handling the applicant.

It is conceivable that if you have an obvious problem with your health that would prevent you from working in most areas of employment, they may ask additional questions about another requirement for naturalization, which is:

自己又は {jibun mata wa}生計を {seikei o}一にする {itsuni suru}配偶者 {haigūsha}その他の親族の資産 {sono ta no shinzoku no shisan}又は技能によって {mata wa ginō ni yotte}生計を営むことができること {seikei o itonamu koto ga dekiru koto}

Or paraphrased:

be able to, with your skills and the combined financial resources of you and your spouse & family, support yourself

By the way, while it's true that Japanese health care is pretty good by most world standards according to international metrics and that Japanese have some of the highest longevity rates in the world, it is known that foreigners who immigrate as an adult and live in Japan for a long time do not seem to inherit this longevity trait.

It is unknown whether naturalized citizens live as long as non-naturalized Japanese, probably because there is not yet enough data.

Are you encouraging people to naturalize?

2011-12-12T16:41:00.001+09:00

Sometimes I joke around and tell people I receive a free toaster oven from the Ministry of Justice for every person I successfully convert into a Japanese citizen. In truth, I actually spend a lot of my time discouraging people that ask me how I did it so they can do it themselves.

What's the profile of somebody that I discourage? For people who come from "developed" ("first world countries" in the parlance of my Cold War non-P.C. upbringing) countries, these are people who are:

the "young" (defined here as under 30 years old)
the never married or recently married
those without children and under 35
those in a job, even if it's good (right now), that is unstable or lacks career mobility inside Japan
those with children but raise them in Japan in a non-integrated way (ex. an all-English upbringing)
those with a spouse who is not "integrated" (lives in a non-Japanese way) and has not lived in Japan for more than a decade
those who believe in a "stateless" or "borderless" society or those enamored with the idea of being an "international person" or those that view additional nationalities as the ultimate bragging right (the PassportStamp crowd) among expats comparing visas.
those expecting or trying to keep their previous citizenship through a loophole, concealment, or deception
those who think naturalization is the solution to something (believing that citizenship will somehow solve some sort of obstacle in their life, be it immigration, political, finance, employment or tax related)

Now, there are some people from "developing" (in Cold War lingo: Second World or Third World. Sorry, showing my age) countries that I am less reserved about — but I still make sure they don't fall into the above categories. In general, if someone is confident that being underemployed, lonely, without roots and barely getting by in Japan is a better situation than being steadily employed and fed with family relationships in their native land (ex. countries that have been oppressive or destitute for decades), then the permanence of switching one's citizenship from that developing country to a developed country like Japan does not seem so bad despite how different it may be culturally, economically, or politically.

I do know people that have gotten Japanese citizenship because they are very successful and/or talented in business and have the means to live and work anywhere, but their original country's passport made it difficult to travel (requiring visas from everywhere and/or having difficulty obtaining visas). But this is a rare case.

Citizenship is not just about rights, it is a social contract that links an individual to a state, and carries, in addition to the "rights" everybody knows about, responsibilities (both now and perhaps additional responsibilities in the future). More importantly, while it is possible to change your citizenship back or switch countries, you should view citizenship like a tattoo: in theory, you can change your mind and have it changed or erased, but there are no guarantees.

It should be viewed as more "permanent", and possibly a bigger decision, than marriage.

Thus, I think naturalization to any country is a very important decision, because there's no 100% guarantee you will be able to reverse it or change it. And even if you can, it will probably not be easy.

It's true that one of the reasons I started this site was to dispel the myth that obtaining Japanese citizenship is extremely difficult or impossible to obtain. However, that does not change the fact that it's still a serious decision not to be taken lightly, as it often solidifies and formalizes a lifestyle change.

Why can't your passport be proof of citizenship?

2011-12-09T10:38:00.001+09:00

One of the most curious things that you get asked for during your initial paperwork collection is for a document called "proof of citizenship". You are asked for this in addition to your passport.

Your passport is a photo/biometric identification, and all passports clearly list the country that you are a citizen of, so why is additional documentation necessary?

The answer is related to the length of time that a passport is valid for. The 法務省 {hōmushō} (Ministry of Justice), in general, wants all of the documentation is receives to be issued or certified within six months. For some documents, three months. A typical passport, on the other hand, often doesn't expire for five or ten years.

Because the naturalization process of gathering and review by the case worker, which can involve multiple appointments separated by weeks to months, many applicants have stories of paperwork that they initially gathered at the beginning of the process "expiring" before submission to the 法務省 {hōmushō} (Ministry of Justice), requiring the applicant to get additional certified copies of the same document (with a "fresher" issue date) near the end of the gathering process.

If your passport for your home country has been issued for less than six months, it can in fact be used as proof of citizenship for naturalization without needing additional documentation.

In the case of the United States, there is no official document called "Proof of citizenship," so what happens is a consular officer types up the details of the first page of your U.S. passport (Name, D.O.B., citizenship, etc) on embassy letterhead then endorses it with the embassy stamp/seal. It costs $30 for this service, which is much cheaper than a passport.

There are cases, of course, where a person may be overseas and not possess a valid (unexpired) passport, as not having a passport does not mean you're not a citizen of that country.

What if you're missing some of the paperwork?

2011-12-08T22:10:00.001+09:00

Today's random question discovered on the internet is:

What if you're missing some of the paperwork (for example, it's impossible for you to obtain your parent's birth certificates)? Can you still naturalize to Japanese?

It's handled case-by-case, country-by-country... and there are thick manuals under the desk of the case worker for the particulars for every state regarding the rules for these documents (with PRC and ROK on top of the desk, well worn).

The purpose of getting this documentation is to make the new 戸籍 {koseki} (family register), which needs to be created from scratch for a naturalized citizen, as accurate and complete as possible.

They are aware that it's not always possible to get this documentation, and it doesn't automatically disqualify you (although refusing to present it or not trying may not help you; naturalization is not a right) but they try really hard to get it.

Applying for a Japanese passport

2011-11-23T20:36:00.001+09:00

Some people seem to believe that you receive a passport upon naturalizing as your proof of citizenship. You don't. The proof of your citizenship that you possess lies in both the 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no shōmeisho} (proof of identity of naturalized citizen), which you receive from the 法務局 {hōmukyoku}) (Bureau of Legal Affairs) after being informed that you've received permission to naturalize. You use that document at your local 区役所 {kuyakusho} (ward office) or 市役所 {shiyakusho} (city hall) as a breeder document to create your 住民票 {jūminhyō} (Japanese local resident registration), delete your 外国人登録 {gaikokujin tōroku} (alien registration) records, and create your 戸籍 {koseki} (family register), which is stored at your 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) and you can request authenticated copies of or make changes from, even remotely, from your 区役所 {kuyakusho} (ward office) or 市役所 {shiyakusho} (city hall).

Once all of this Japanese paperwork is done, you no longer need your 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no shōmeisho} (proof of identity of naturalized citizen) as a breeder document. For here on, like all other Japanese citizens, your 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) or 住民票 {jūminhyō} (Japanese local resident registration) becomes your reference documentation.

In a pinch, an official can verify whether you are Japanese or not from a driver's license — which has your 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) digitally encrypted inside of it — foreigners have their foreign country of nationality listed in this space while Japanese will have a registered domicile in Japan — or from a 住基カード {jūki kādo} (local resident identification card) that has a photo on it ("version B"). Some people elect to get a card that has no photo on it. These ("version A") cannot be used as identity verification.

However, once you are a Japanese national, you must enter and leave Japan using a Japanese Passport, even if you have a valid foreign passport.

To apply for a passport, you either get an application form at your local 区役所 {kuyakusho} (Ward Office) or 市役所 {shiyakusho} (City Hall), then submit that application to a section (probably in a different building) that will probably be titled something like 市民課 {shimin-ka} (Citizen's Section) or, in the case of Tokyo, 生活文化局 {seikatsu bunka kyoku} (Bureau of Citizens of Cultural Affairs). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a list of all the places in Japan where you can apply for a passport.

It is also possible to have a passport issued to you by a Japanese embassy or consulate overseas (with the exception of the Iraq embassy). However, not all overseas embassies are capable of making IC-chip enabled aka biometric or ePassports (mostly in developing countries). Japan has been using IC-chip based passports since March 20, 2006. Unlike passports of other countries, the only biometric data stored in the chip is your photograph. Currently, fingerprints are not recorded.

At your application center there will probably be a sign on the wall with a placard that says "If you apply for a passport today, your passport will be ready on this date: year 年 month 月 day 日". The date when I went there was set a week in advance. Seven days to receive a passport is not bad.

Because my original nationality is American and thus I renounce after I naturalize within two years, and I needed my new passport immediately, I still had my U.S. nationality when I applied for a passport. I travel a lot for business, and once you have Japanese nationality, you're not supposed to enter or leave Japan using a non-Japanese passport. Additionally, the Ministry of Justice will cancel both your 再入国許可 (Re-Entry Permit) and any visa or permanent residency for Japan that you may possess. They will not stamp "VOID" or "EXPIRED" on the stamps, but they will mark it in the computer, so when they scan the QR Codes (or the 1D bar code on the back of the disembarkation card attached to your passport, which is a backup these days) or manually input the numbers into the immigration computers they will see that they have been nullified.
To submit your passport application, you must have an official copy of your family register (戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon}), which may take up to ten business days to have mailed to you if your registered domicile is not near you, and either one or two forms of identification. In general, nationally valid IDs with photos don't require additional identification. Other forms of local identification require two forms of id. If you are applying at an embassy that doesn't have the technology to make IC-chip based passports, you will need two copies of the photo and application form.

You also need a photo that is of the proper specification. They have an instant photo machine right outside the entrance in case you forgot and you don't mind taking a photo that minute that will last for the next ten years. Inside the passport application area, they have a poster demonstrating what types of photos are good (○) and no good (×):

hair and accessories can't distract from the face

all of these are no good

The surprising one? Top row, third from the right. "No unnatural facial expressions." In other words, no (excessive) smiling! You're Japanese now! We don't smile in photos! ☻ The perfect specimen is here:

this is a "natural" expression

both of these are okay

On the passport application, there is a box on the bottom might that one must complete:

現在外国の国籍を有していますか。
（※該当する枠内に✓印を記入してください）
はい□　　　　　　　　　　いいえ□
「はい」の場合
どの国の国籍ですか。＿＿＿＿＿＿
取得年月日　＿＿＿年＿＿月＿＿日
どのような方法で取得しましたか。
外国籍の父又は母の子として出生 □
外国で出生　　　　　　　　　　□
外国人との婚姻又は養子縁組　　 □

Translated, this box says:

Do you currently possess foreign nationality?
(* Check the appropriate boxes)
Yes □ No □
If "yes",
Which country's nationality? __________________________
Acquisition Date: Year __________ Month ____ Date _____
How did you acquire your nationality?
By birth to a father or mother possessing foreign nationality □
By birth in a foreign country □
By marriage to or adoption by a foreigner □

On that same form, there is a warning in small print on the left side:

虚偽の記載をしてこの申請書を提出したり、旅券の交付を受けた場合は、罰せられます。（旅券法第二三条及び刑法第一五七条）

This basically says that anybody who writes false information on the application form and submits it may be penalized according to Passport Law Article 23 (up to 5 years imprisonment and/or up to ¥3,000,000) and Criminal Law Article 157.

So I answered honestly, and when the processor looked at it, she told me that if I filled it out this way (in other words, told them that I had another non-Japanese passport), there was a probability that they would reject my passport application. I told her how I needed the passport immediately and that renunciation took some time with the United States, she asked how long I had had my Japanese nationality. When I told her "two weeks," and swore to her that I intended to renounce before two years, she said in that case it was okay that I write "no" on the application form (she did initial the form as having been reviewed by her).

There are four places where you enter your name:

On the front, in 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms)
On the front, in 外務省ヘボン式ローマ字 {gaimushō Hebon-shiki rōmaji} (Ministry of Foreign Affairs modified Hepburn dictionary style transliteration), slightly modified to exclude diacritics.
On the front, in signature form (which does not have do be legible or readable, which works for me, as my signature is abstract)
Optionally, on the back, you give an alternate family name / transliterations and/or alternate given names / transliterations.

The alternate names are useful for people that use a non-Hepburn style transliteration for their name or they have an English / International name. People who have spouses or children who are dual nationals often choose to put the surname of their children or spouse that they use overseas, which can make travel as a family easier to verify for overseas officials. The alternate names will not be on the digital version of your information in the IC chip embedded in your passport.

Because my daughter has an American passport with a family name that is different from her Japanese passport, I chose to put my old family name in parentheses so it matches her U.S. passport.

If you choose an alternate name, you will need to provide appropriate proof and documentation that shows your alternate names legitimately refer to you.

It took exactly one week to make my passport and cost ¥16,000, payable via revenue stamps upon pick up.

When you receive your passport, the staff has your photo identification, so they will ask you for your birth date and may ask you your name and how you write it. Passports that expire in five years (which are the only passports that minors under 20 years old can have) are blue. Passports valid for ten years are red.

They will then place the NFC (near field contact) page, which is in the middle of a Japanese passport and shielded, onto an electronic reader as they direct your attention to a computer screen that displays the contents of the chip. Again, the chip will have all of the same information that is on your printed page, including a digital color photograph, except for the family name that is in parentheses after your real name. Japanese are a little sensitive about electronically stored personal information, so they do this "show me" procedure for your driver's license (which requires PINs to decode) as well.

If you wish to register for the express automated gates at Japanese airports (which usually require no human intervention) as a Japanese you do so at the airport itself right before going through passport inspection. You should allow about 30 extra minutes for processing to register your passport and fingerprints. Foreigners with re-entry permits can register to use them too, but they use a different form that registers their re-entry permit and ARC (Alien Registration Card) number. Registering for the automated gates is free. All you need is your passport and the application form.

Published in the Gazette after Naturalizing

2011-11-20T11:16:00.001+09:00

The 官報 {kampō} (Official Gazette) is an official government newsletter which is published by the National Printing Bureau. It has been in existence in various forms since 1883.

As all citizens have a right to read the Official Gazette to know what their government is doing, the Japanese government put the Gazette online starting in 1999. The electronic versions of the Official Gazette is at the following address: kanpou.npb.go.jp.

The government publishes all decisions and actions relating to the Japanese Constitution, Imperial edicts, laws, cabinet orders, treaties, ministerial ordinances, and notices in it. Naturalized citizens aren't the only individuals that get singled out in the Gazette; any person, foreign or not, that does business with the government in an official capacity gets mentioned. Also, Japanese who die overseas while travelling are also mentioned (!).Naturalization permission is given from a very high level of the government (directly from the Ministry of Justice, rather than a sub-organization like immigration), and every order it gives related to individuals, not limited to naturalization, is published.

Many other governments in the world do the same thing. The United States does as well as a matter of public record, but at a lower level, because naturalization is handled at the State court level, not the Federal level — so they don't publish the list in the equivalent Congressional Quarterly (and if they did, the list would be too long).

The forms that are online are in signed PDF form, so if you print them out they are identical in layout and size to the original A4 pages.

Regarding the names in the Quarterly:

Registered Chinese names will be listed in their original 漢字 {kanji} (sinograms), but they will be converted to 新字体 {shin-jitai} (new Japanese simplification) forms if the glyph isn't exactly the same. There will be no space between the family name and the given name.

All other names will be the original passport Latin name converted to カタカナ {katakana} (Japanese syllabet). Differing from how names are listed on the 戸籍 {koseki} (family register), all names will be separated by a 中黒 {nakaguro} (middle full-width dot), rather than just a western-style comma between the family and given names, with no spaces. (ex. last⋅first⋅middle)
The new names people have chosen after naturalizing are not listed. However, if your new Japanese name is not different from your pre-Japanese name when transliterated to Japanese, or you changed your name to Japanese prior to naturalizing, your new name will be effectively listed.
The addresses that people lived at at the time of application in Japan are listed.
While there are search engines designed to search the PDFs (such as kanpoo.jp), the nature of the PDFs and the long list of names means they cannot search for individual names or addresses of the naturalized. The layout of the 官報 {kanpō} (Official Gazette) is traditional newspaper format, with many narrow columns where the majority of the text runs top-down, right-left. The nature of the large naturalized data list means that for presentation convenience (for the printed version), the data is turned sideways, and the associated left-to-right top-to-bottom text is not converted into meta-data within the PDF that can be processed, and doing OCR (optical character recognition) on Japanese is still an inexact manual labor intensive science, thus most search engines can't index this data (yet).

To find your name in the Gazette, look up the date the 法務省 {hōmushō} (Ministry of Justice) officially granted your naturalization permission, then search the various Gazette publications from that date to about a week ahead (normally it takes a few days for the names to be published). You can speed the process up by searching for the keyword 『帰化』 {"kika"} ("naturalized") to find the section within each Gazette. But from there the search is manual. It is not in any sorted order. Other than names and addresses, no other data (ex. former nationality, prefecture where naturalized, new name, registered domicile) is included.

Family Registers for Naturalized Citizens

2011-11-13T14:47:00.001+09:00

Note: the forms that family registers are printed have been digitized. You may have seen the old style forms, which are on large B4 (257mm × 364mm) pieces of paper, have hard borders and boxes for things like 母 (mother) and 父 (father), and are printed vertically, top-down right-to-left. Japan has been modernizing and computerizing them so the new ones are printed on standard A4 paper which has copy-protection technology in it, horizontally left-to-right top-to-bottom, and have no fixed boxes with the exception of being two columns: the left for the type of information and the right for the contents. We will be talking about the new forms, because frankly, that's all I know: my family register never existed during the "old form" era. As of 2011, over 70% of the family registers in Japan have been digitized.

Furthermore, we will be talking about the 全部事項証明 {zenbu jikō shōmei } (unabridged version) of the family register that you can request.

Finally, as there are many variations of "family," even in Japan, so not all cases will be covered here; the Japanese wikipedia entry lists over thirty different possible "sections", including some relating to name changes, adoption, marrying foreigners, etc., that are probably worth discussing. However, I'll stick with what I know from my own experience: being a husband with a Japanese national wife and Japanese national child. Your own register will probably not be identical to what I list here.

This post will cover what you see on a modern 戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon } (family register official copy) because Japanese 住民票 {jūminhyō } (residency registration cards), 住民基本台帳カード {jūmin kihon daichō kādo } aka 住基カード {jūki kado } (Resident's ID Card) and 運転免許証 {unten menkyo-shō } (driver's licenses) have no special notations or sections for naturalized citizens.As for Japanese driver's licenses, they will note two things on the back of the card in the 記載欄 {kisairan } (notation/amendment area) if you had one prior to naturalizing and you report your naturalization:

it will say what your new name is in 漢字 {kanji } (Japanese sinograms) or 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) only
it will say that you 本籍 {honseki } (registered domicile) has changed, without saying from what to what. This is what "proves" you're Japanese from a driver's license point-of-view

For your registered domicile, it won't say from what to what, but digitally, protected by encryption and your personal PINs, it will have been changed from your previous nationality to your Japanese registered domicile for your family register. When your license is reprinted due to renewal or loss, your new name will be on the front of the card rather than the back and your old name will not be listed.

In the main section, you will have your 名na (given name), your birth date in the Japanese calendar based on the Emperor era — it will probably be 昭和 {shōwa } (Shōwa era; 1926 to 1989) or 平成 {heisei } (Heisei era; 1989 to present), unless you're Donald Keene, in which case it will be 大正 {taishō } (Taishō era)! — not the 西暦 {seireki } (western Gregorian year system), your fathers' full name transliterated into Japanese, your mothers' full name transliterated into Japanese, and your 続柄 {tsuzukigara } (relation), will will note if your the oldest son/daughter (長男 {chōnan } / 長女 {chōjo }) etc. There may also be a 配偶者区分 {haigūsha kubun } (spouse division), which will list you as either the 夫 {otto } (husband) or 妻 {tsuma } (wife).

There is no section for 性別 {seibetsu } (sex); it is implied by the 続柄 {tsuzukigara } (relation) field.

There is also no section for the 読み方 {yomigata } (reading of Japanese sinogram) for your family name or your or anybody else's given names, even though the section exists in the 帰化届 {kika todoke } (naturalization form) you completed. This is probably for the sake of searching and sorting in the computer. The 読み方 {yomikata } is not explicitly listed in copies of your 住民票 {jūminhyō } (resident registration card) or 住基カード {jūki kādo } (resident registration id), or 運転免許証 {unten menkyoshō } (driver's license) either.

Thus, if you picked an unusual Japanese name that is 当て字 {ateji } — sinograms which correspond to either the semantic or phonetic meaning of a foreign name — be prepared to do what all Japanese who have an unusual/rare name do every time they give their name to someone: explain how to read/write it. Thus problem is not unique to Japanese of course; very few people could pronounce or spell my original last name correctly.

There is no section for last/family names, as everybody on one family register has one family name. Also, there are no middle names or multiple given names. For foreign names on the family register, given names are stringed together and put in the 名 {na } (given name) field. Legally speaking, there is no length limit, but most people know in Japan that most names are three or four characters long. Anything longer than seven and you will have problems everywhere filling out forms, both on paper and electronically, which have length "sanity" limits.

For foreign names on the register, there will be a 全角コンマ {zenkaku komma } (full/double width western comma: 『，』) delimiting the family name from the given names. The Japanese 全角中黒
{zenkaku nakaguro } (full/double width middle dot: 『・』) is often used to separate first from last non-kanji name in Japanese as it lacks spaces, and sometimes people will use a 全角 {zenkaku } (full/double width) Latin letter for a middle initial or separate their first given name from their middle name with a 全角 {zenkaku } (full/double width) "equals" sign (『＝』). Thus, foreign names are transliterated phonetically, and they can end up being comically long on the 戸籍 {koseki } (family register).

On the family register, though, the only characters permitted are recognized 漢字 {kanji } (Japanese sinograms), 仮名 {kana } (Japanese syllabet), and the 全角コンマ {zenkaku komma } (full/double width western comma) to separate a non-Japanese surname from the rest of the names. The surname must come first, followed by all given names, unabbreviated.

Depending on whether a link can be made to a registered 漢字 {kanji } (sinograms) legal name, foreign names may actually have 漢字 {kanji } (sinograms) in them. Even if they do, though, they must still have the 全角コンマ {zenkaku komma } (full/double width western comma) separating the family from the given name.

If the section marked 身分事項 (mibun jikō} (personal details), there will be the usual items that Japanese have: 出生 {shussei } (birth) and 婚姻 {kon'in } (marriage). However, there will be one additional section: 帰化 {kika } (naturalization).

In this row, there will be about five or six fields, many of which are identical to the other sections (registration date, receiving office, etc.). These are the most common data fields:

帰化日 {kikahi } (naturalization date)
This is the actual date the 法務省 {hōmushō } (Ministry of Justice) approved your naturalization, which is listed on your 帰化者の身分証明書 {kikasha no mibun shōmeisho } (proof of naturalized citizen details) that you received (probably at a much later date) from your local 法務局 (Bureau of Legal Affairs).
届出日 {todokedebi } (registration date)
This is supposed to be within one month of the 帰化日 {kikahi } (naturalization date).
帰化の際の国籍 {kika no sai no kokuseki } (nationality at naturalization)

This will say 無国籍 {mukokuseki } (stateless) for most naturalized (Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc), as they renounce their other nationalities before getting Japanese citizenship. It exists so there's a written record as to whether a naturalized Japanese fully completed the process — see 国籍選択届 {kokuseki sentaku todoke } (choice of nationality registration) below — or not.
従前の氏名 {jūzen no shimei } (prior name)
This will be in Japanese, not ローマ字 {rōmaji } ("roman characters), in the form "last, given names". This is a little problematic for converting a lot of paperwork, as will be explained below.
送付を受けた日 {sōfu o uketa hi } (reception via mail date)

This will be present if your registered domicile is not the same place where you did the naturalization registration; a city/ward office forwarded your application to your domicile.
受理者jurisha (receiving city/ward office)

If the 帰化の際の国籍kika no sai no kokuseki (nationality at naturalization) is not 無国籍mukokuseki (stateless) — which will be the case for those who must renounce after naturalizing (such as the U.S.) as opposed to before (such as the U.K.) — and two years have passed, there should be another section, 国籍選択届kokuseki sentaku todoke (choice of nationality registration), which happens once you complete that form with proof in the form of a loss/renunciation of nationality certificate from the appropriate government.

Because there is no single official document which has both your Latin passport name and your new name in 漢字kanji (sinograms), some pedantic organizations may have trouble accepting the 戸籍謄本koseki tōhon (official copy of the family register) as a breeder document that allows you to change the name on pre-existing contracts in Japan if those contracts were made using either the ローマ字rōmaji (Latin letter) passport name or a 通称tsūshō (official alias) on one's 外国人登録証明書gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho (Alien Registration Card) or 在留カードzairyū kādo (Alien Residence Card).

If you have a spouse which has transferred/merged their family register into yours, there will be an additional section: 配偶者の帰化 {haigūsha no kika } (spouse's naturalization). In this section, there will probably be just two rows:

入籍日 {nyūsekibi } (date of entering register)
入籍理由 {nyūseki riyū } (reason for entering register)
Most likely this field will just say something similar to 「夫の帰化届出」 {"otto no kikatodokede" } ("husband submitted naturalization registration")

My wife got a kick out of the addition to this section, because this was something new that changed in her own section. She never expected to see the word "naturalized" anywhere near her part of the register.

Finally, if you had a child prior to naturalizing and you opted to transfer his/her register onto your own, they will be listed. However, the reason for their transfer (入籍理由 {nyūseki riyū }) will not be listed as related to naturalization. It will be listed as 「父母の氏を称する入籍」 {"fubo no uji o shō suru nyūseki" } ("taking the family name/lineage of the father/mother") and the 届出人 {todokedehito } (submitter of registration) will be listed as 親権者父母 {shinkensha fubo } (father/mother with parental rights).

No preferential treatment for Keene

2011-11-06T13:36:00.000+09:00

The online magazine Slate published an article (which actually originally appeared in the Financial Times) on Donald Keene and why he became Japanese last week.

Most of the article reads more like a French restaurant review than an interview (I do want to try that restaurant though. It sounds delicious!), but one small excerpt caught my attention:

Immigration officials required documentation proving his parents were married, something he is still struggling to locate. Then they needed proof that he was American. A US passport did not suffice. Finally, they requested evidence that Keene, the most famous foreign scholar in Japan, had graduated. “I said, ‘Well, I have various honorary doctorates, including from very important Japanese universities.’ ‘Oh, that doesn’t count,’ they said, ‘because honorary doctorates are given to people even without education.’” Keene confesses to being irritated.

I have to wonder how accurate this is, as graduating is preferred, but not technically a requirement, for naturalizing. If you say you have graduated from so and so school, they will obviously ask you to provide documentation for it.

My guess is that Dr. Keene could easily skip providing documentation for his universities and present all of the other honors and official national rewards he's received (both from the United States and Japan).

I found the story of him translating works that nobody else wanted to translate because they were physically stained with blood to be both morbid and fascinating.

As for the passport not being proof of citizenship, I too had a hard time understanding this, until it was explained to me that a passport can have up to a ten year expiration date, and the Ministry of Justice likes to see paperwork that is anywhere from three to six months "fresh." So I guess they ask you to get a U.S. Consulate Officer to provide you with a certificate stating your nationality is because in theory it's possible you may have lost the nationality you have that's stated on your passport over the years. Of course, that doesn't explain why you'd still be in possession of a non-voided passport.

Anyway, it's an interesting read. If anything, it at least made me want to try that elaborate lunch from ヴァンサン {vansan} (Vincent) someday.

Translation of post-naturalization procedures

2011-10-24T02:18:00.000+09:00

The original Japanese

... translates roughly to the following:

Dear ______________:

Regarding Procedures for After Naturalization

Those who have naturalized must complete the following set procedures within the designated time periods:

☑ Notification of Naturalization

You must complete a Notification of Naturalization Form and submit it to either the Ward/City Office of your current residence or your new registered domicile within one month from the day of your naturalization (Nationality Law Article 102, part 2) Those who do not may be subject to a fine.

You should have received a "Proof of Naturalization Identification" from the Ministry of Justice. You will need this in addition to the Notification of Naturalization form.

☑ Return your Alien Registration Card

You must return your Alien Registration card within 14 days from the day of your naturalization. (Alien Registration Law Article 12) Those who do not do so in time may be subject to a fine or sentence.

☑ Nationality Selection (only applies to those who still have multiple nationalities)

Those who have additional nationalities in addition to Japanese nationality have two years from the time of their naturalization (those under 20 have until they're 22 years old) to do one of the following two procedures in order to select Japanese nationality. (Nationality Law Article 14) If you do not complete the procedures within the time period, you may receive a notification regarding Nationality Selection from the Minister of Justice, and you may lose your Japanese nationality (Nationality Law Article 15).

① Renunciation of Foreign Nationalities

After completing the appropriate steps for renouncing from other countries, you should submit a "Notification of Loss of Foreign Nationality Form" and submit it to either your local Ward/City office or your new registered domicile.

② Declaration of Choice of Japanese Nationality

For the cases where a country has no renunciation procedure, etc., so you can't renounce within the time period, you should complete a "Nationality Selection Form" and submit it to either your Ward/City office or your new registered domicile. (Family Registration Law Article 104) Those who use this method will not receive a notification from the Minister of Justice regarding their Nationality Selection.

Furthermore, if it becomes such that you can and do renounce your nationality afterwards, please follow the procedures in ① regarding the submission of a "Notification of Loss of Foreign Nationality."

Added an intro page

2011-10-20T13:18:00.000+09:00

Some people have told me they were a little confused regarding the relationship between the blog and the other content on this site, and how they relate to each other.

So, I added an introduction page, which you can read at the very top left of this web page, that attempts to explain how the three things: the blog; the contributors; and the forms & documents, related to each other.

Additionally, I publicized the address to an internal group/mailing-list, which is subscribed to (and membership is limited to) by the naturalized contributors to this blog, on that page. I did this because people have been sending me mail regarding questions that they considered too sensitive to put in a comment, yet I wanted a way for these people to be able to ask for more than just my opinion. This group is moderated, so please understand if your email is not read or replied to immediately (or at all). As with the rest of this site, the moderators reserve the right to delete any message without reading, distributing, or replying to it, if it is out-of-scope (ex. not about naturalization facts but about politics or personal opinions, etc).

Document added: 帰化後の手続について

2011-10-15T15:52:00.000+09:00

I've added the original document, 「帰化後の手続について {kika go no tetsuzuki ni tsuite}」 (Regarding Procedures after Naturalizing), to the Forms & Docs page (which is accessible from the tabs on this page). I will translate it soon and write a post explaining the individual points it makes.

Once you naturalize, you get a certificate of naturalization amongst other documents, but there is still some paperwork you must do. This document explains what you need to do, where you do it, and how long you have.

An attempt to renounce US citizenship, Part 1

2011-10-12T23:09:00.003+09:00

This may not be the most helpful blog post in the history of mankind, since my first attempt to renounce my US citizenship today was more or less a failure...but since there seems to be a real lack of concrete information and personal experiences out there (Debito's is the only thorough account I've been able to find publicly available, and it's eight years old by now), I figure that "What not to do" may help some of you...at least more than nothing at all will.

The US Embassy's webpage is, in my humble opinion, ridiculously difficult to navigate. It takes a good four or five clicks from the main page (assuming you don't take any wrong turns along the way) to find information like the address, operating hours, and the fact that apparently you are now required to make an appointment for citizen services.

Don't worry, though, apparently (though it's not written anywhere on the website), renunciation doesn't fall into the same category as everything else. Apparently I was supposed to call and make an appointment for that.

Long story short, I showed up for the only appointment I was able to figure out how to make, half an hour early no less, only to be made to wait ANOTHER hour...and at the end of that hour was told that the person I needed to talk to wasn't in. I also got a sticky-sweet lecture in a tone of voice that you kind of expect to come from an older lady in the American South, to the effect of "Oh, you don't really want to do that, honey."

I get the feeling that this is going to be a long process. I'm not a very intimidating person, either in terms of looks or in style of speaking or anything else, and that coupled with the fact that I do want to make it clear that the reason I want to renounce is not political (I've never even voted in a US election) or tax-related (I'm a housewife who didn't make enough money to owe US taxes even when I was working!), I tend to give Japanese-style "well, yes, of course I see your point, but..." kind of answers to those kinds of lectures. Which is helpful in Japan, but possibly not at the US Embassy.

So, some preliminary advice to at least prevent any readers from making the same mistakes I did:

1. Call the embassy to make an appointment. Don't use the automated online system.
2. DO bring both passports and a copy of your Japanese koseki. I did that right, at least!

My next immediate step will probably be to attempt to turn in my Japanese 国籍選択届 without actually having renounced my US citizenship. Finishing the process before the two-year deadline (granted, I did wait almost a year and a half before attempting to begin) may not be possible at this point. It obviously depends on where you live, but between getting to the embassy, getting home again, and all of the waiting and eating lunch and bathroom breaks and whatever else, I ended up losing a good seven hours and 5,000 yen for nothing today.

I'm not quite sure why the US would want me. Not rich enough to be taxable, not male enough to be draftable...but it definitely seems that what I've heard so far is true. They don't want to let any of us go.

New "Steps" page published

2011-09-04T16:18:00.003+09:00

I've added a new resource to this blog, the "Steps" page. You can access it from the tabs at the top of the site.

It should give you an idea of how many steps are necessary, from the beginning of the application to the changing of all your identification to your new name.

I came up with fifty (50) steps, but the exact number of steps will be slightly different depending on individual circumstances: what country you're from, the composition of your family, whether you own a business, and other things. If I figure out that some steps should really be broken down into multiple steps, I'll do so.

I don't think the order of the steps should change too much, with perhaps the exception of the order for when you renounce your other nationality — Americans being one of the exceptions that renounce after obtaining Japanese nationality. The order that you collect the big bunch of the paperwork prior to the big assessment shouldn't matter much. They have been ordered in a way so that the paperwork that expires the most quickly (issued within three months or less) — such as your driving and tax records — are further down the list compared to paperwork that has no expiration from issue — such as death certificates, for example.

Much like the other pages on this site, we may edit it so that we link to and from it, writing blog posts about particular steps.

No More Kanji or Kana Aliases for Non-Japanese

2011-09-03T08:43:00.002+09:00

Old ARC card vs the New ARC card

One of the more popular posts on this site has been the one titled:

FAQ: Can I have an official Japanese name even if I don't naturalize?

In that post, we talked about how non-Japanese can get a "Japanese name" (in 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms) or 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) registered and imprinted underneath your "passport name" on the official identification card for non-Japanese residents: the 外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho} (Alien Registration Card; "ARC"). This field exists for many reasons: originally for non-Japanese who appeared Asian — such as 特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha} (Special Permanent Residents) Koreans and Chinese etc. — who wished to use a Japanese name for various reasons (such as, but not limited to, reducing the chances of being discriminated against), it is now used by some non-Asian residents to provide an definitive transliteration / nickname etc in カタカナ {katakana} for doing day-to-day life and business in Japan.

Transliteration from any foreign language into another foreign language is often ambiguous due to the presence or lack of sounds, homonyms, or non-auditory details in the spelling of one's name. Thus, there is often no absolutely correct way to transliterate a name, and once it's transliterated, there's no guarantee that you can reverse it back to the original writing system.

This is true not just for transliterating into Japanese but for transliterating to English; foreigners that come from Arabic writing systems often lose the ability to unambiguously reverse their Anglicized name back to the original writing system.

There are also some people that do choose a Japanese style name or an 当て字 {ateji} (Japanese sinograms that roughly correspond to either the pronunciation or meaning of the non-Japanese name) name for their ARC alias that may have nothing in common with a name that appears Japanese.

However, the 法務省 {hōmushō} (Japan Ministry of Justice) will do away with these older, local municipality issued cards for a nationally issued card called the 在留カード {zairyū kādo} (new Alien Residence Card).

Notice how the English translation of 在留カード {zairyū kādo} (new Alien Residence Card) gives it the exact same acronym ("ARC") as the old English translation (Alien Registration Card), even though the legal word "Alien" (外国人 {gaikokujin}) is not in the new official Japanese name.

All of the changes that will occur with this card are out-of-scope for this web site, but we will address one issue in order to correct an older post:

The new cards do away with the 通称 {tsūshō} (alias) field that was present in the older cards.

All of the fields on the old ARC are numbered; the Alias field is field #17. The number is not present on the front of the card, but if you add an alias to a card that has already been issued, the reverse-side 記載欄 {kisairan} (notation area) will note that field #17 has be changed/added and the reverse side of your card will have the alias until a card renewal or replacement occurs (if which case the alias will be listed on the front).

Note that this does not mean that names will not be rendered in sinograms on the new ARC cards; if you are a non-Japanese that comes from a locale that officially registers sinogram names (for example, the P.R.C. & Singapore), your "name" field will have the same 漢字 {kanji. If ones official sinogram name cannot be rendered in the computer system reflecting the ARC card due to character set limitations, then characters that are as close as possible to the unified Han characters will be used instead..

Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans will have their names written in Latin letters, unless they are dual nationals and can prove the official Han character names are registered with a government they are a citizen of. Immigration officials at ports of entry may enter Chinese names in passport or transliterated form into the country entry/exit logs, etc., if Japanese computer input technology makes it impossible, time consuming, or difficult to enter a foreign 漢字 {kanji} name on the old or new ARCs.

I'm not sure about the motivation to do away with the alias field in the new ARCs. Its original purpose was for accommodating Special Permanent Residents who were assimilated into society to the point that they did not use and/or want to use their legal non-Japanese names in day-to-day life in Japan. However, special permanent residents have been declining in numbers year after year, with regular permanent residents now outnumbering them. Also, governments generally dislike aliases because they can be used for fraud; if you register an account in Japan with your alias, for example, it can be difficult to impossible to identify you with other systems outside of Japan. Finally, the need to have a Japanese name for day-to-day life is now debatable with modern computers; compared to a few decades ago, more and more computer systems in Japan (especially banks) can handle non-Japanese long Latin names in their computer systems. Some parts of government have never allowed aliases. For example, any foreign names on 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) must be transliterated as close as possible to the passport form, even though foreign scripts (including Latin/Roman letters) are not allowed.

We are not a legal service

2011-07-23T12:25:00.001+09:00

To the nice Nigerian man who wants to be Japanese and keeps leaving his personal phone number in comments:

I'm not publishing your comments for your own safety due to the personal info you included.

This is a DIY info site and does not provide legal assistance. There are plenty of licensed professionals on the internet that can assist you though.

Good luck!

FAQ: Can you not renounce your original citizenship and hide this from the government(s)?

2011-05-10T18:21:00.033+09:00

In the case of the U.S., there is no need to hide it. The U.S., due to its history with slavery and its response with the 14th Amendment, has made it almost impossible for the U.S. to revoke somebody's properly acquired citizenship, no matter what you said or did or promised to a foreign government like Japan. Even if you did something so bad that you'd be a candidate for denaturalization, the modern U.S. government would simply throw you in jail (or execute you via the death penalty), rather than revoke your U.S. citizenship.

Even so, a U.S. State Department page still warns that:

... U.S. citizens are subject to loss of citizenship if they perform certain specified acts voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship.

However, what the U.S. State Department says on its site and what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled (overriding the original stricter intent of the Immigration and Nationality Act) and the State Department now actually does regarding "potentially expatriating acts" are very different things.

The combination of the 14th Amendment and its subsequent interpretations (i.e. Nishikawa v. Dulles, Afroyim v. Rusk & Vance v. Terrazas) means that even if you get conscripted to fight against the United States, vote in a foreign election, or swear an oath (verbally or in writing, to a foreign official, flag, king, emperor, or bible) to a foreign government and constitution that you intend to naturalize or renounce, it doesn't really count unless you actually formally renounce directly and in-person at a U.S. Consulate/Embassy.

In other words, there is a loophole on the U.S. side due to the 14th Amendment and the rulings on it: the U.S. essentially permits you to lie to foreign governments (on paper, verbally, to a flag, a Bible, or official) with respect to your intentions regarding your citizenship. What kind of trouble that gets you in with the other government is your own business, but the U.S. won't get involved just as long as you don't declare to an authorized U.S. official at an embassy in person that you intended or intend to renounce.

Some U.S. politicians don't like this, but they know that overriding the Supreme Court requires either a new Constitutional Amendment or the Justices to overturn precedent — both extremely difficult propositions, so various locales (even at the federal level with H.R. 3938, which almost made it into law in 2005) instead try to "neuter" additional citizenships: that is, they make it illegal to exercise other citizenship's privileges (voting, holding office, etc — with perhaps the exception of border entry/exit for immigration rule compliance) while being a U.S. citizen, effectively making the additional nationalities "honorary" with respect to most of their citizen's privileges.

On the other hand, the Japanese Constitution has no such equivalent to the 14th Amendment, and while there are no penalties, financial or incarceration, for breaking the naturalization requirements regarding renouncing, the Japanese government can strip you of your Japanese citizenship if you "forget" to renounce your other citizenship(s). The process is called "administrative denaturalization," and is basically done when someone commits fraud or fails to fulfill all the requirements of naturalization or voluntarily (not automatically or involuntarily) acquires another citizenship as a Japanese.

The U.S. can also strip people of their U.S. citizenship if (and only if, due to the 14th Amendment) that citizenship was acquired through a fraudulent naturalization application.

BUT if you only have one citizenship, be it Japanese or U.S. or any other country, they cannot strip you of it, as per U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 15:

Everyone has the right to a [one] nationality.

No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

(Most countries try to never make or let a person become stateless. Some countries, such as the U.S., make it close to impossible to become even temporarily stateless, which is why the American procedure is to renounce after naturalizing to Japanese)

Once stripped of your Japanese citizenship, you'd have to apply for a visa to continue to work/live or even visit as a tourist. It's not clear in this case whether one would be once again be able to obtain a normally acquirable Japanese visa (even a temporary landing permit aka no-application-necessary "tourist visa"), as you'd have a mark on your permanent record indicating you committed fraud with the Japan Ministry of Justice, which controls Japanese Immigration.

That being said, administrative denaturalization has never occurred under modern Japanese nationality laws (1950 onwards). Nobody knows why, but the most common theory is that in the case of naturalization, there are not (yet) enough cases of naturalization abuse to make it a priority for enforcement. Furthermore, there are few egregious cases of dual-citizenship privilege abuse (for example, attempting to vote twice — which is by definition undemocratic — in two countries on the same issue such as an international trade or military agreement) to make the non-trivial administrative process worth it.

Considering that a person naturalized to Japan would most likely have their entire life (home, investments, career, family) in Japan, the remote possibility of an administrative denaturalization — which could mean being forced to leave Japan and abandon everything one has invested in it (financially, emotionally, and otherwise) if they couldn't get a Japanese visa after denaturalization — even if it's so rare it's unprecedented, should be enough of a deterrent to keep the sensibly risk averse from abusing the laws.

A dual-national by birth (for example, a Japanese-American born after 1985*) that has lived in the U.S. their whole life that fails to choose a nationality after 22 years of age does not usually have that upend-your-life denaturalization ramification that a naturalized citizen has, and they're more likely to try to get away with possessing multiple nationalities.

Japan requires that you use a Japanese passport to enter and leave the country if you possess one. And the U.S. requires that you use a U.S. passport if you possess one. And there are potential penalties if you fail to present the proper passport to either countries' immigration officials. Because of this, a Japanese official could figure out, by looking at the Japanese passport and/or the computer records, whether one has multiple citizenships by noticing the lack of stamps (U.S. visas, for example) and one's length of stay overseas. Furthermore, certain services for overseas Japanese (absentee voting, family register updates, etc.), require the presentation of a Japanese passport with the proper visas proving you're an ex-pat Japanese.

If a born-after-1985 over 22 years old Japanese-American is discovered at the Japan border with dual nationality, they are forced to choose as per post-1985 nationality law. If they choose the U.S., they are given a 国籍離脱届 {kokuseki ridatsu todoke} ([Japanese] nationality renunciation form), and their Japanese passport gets cancelled on the spot. If they choose Japan, they are told to renounce their other citizenships as soon as possible, since they can't realistically march them to that country's consulate/embassy. And even if they got their on-the-spot choice in writing, it wouldn't matter for Americans, again due to the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 14th Amendment. This is the loophole that some Japanese-Americans use to try to keep both nationalities if they are caught at the border. Nobody knows if or when the Japanese government will start keeping track of their choices and then denaturalize them (or tax them, which many Japanese-Americans would consider to be a harsher punishment!) upon discovery that they failed to renounce their foreign nationality.

Still, because of culture identity issues in at least America, possessing a CJK passport and by extension citizenship is a point of pride for many Asian-Americans, given the still strong non-legal association between ethnicity and nationality — even if they have no plans for ever living in Japan and they can't exercise their hyphenated citizenships overseas. Thus, most born-after-1985 over-22 Japanese-Americans do not take the risk of getting pulled into the auxiliary rooms at Japan's airport immigration and keep their Japanese citizenship hidden, even though they're legally required to present their Japanese passport.

* Prior to 1985, a multi-national Japanese-American, etc., that did not choose a nationality upon becoming an adult was assumed to have "chosen Japanese nationality by default." This created a loophole on the Japan side because the Japanese adult probably did not, as a minor, voluntarily choose their other citizenship(s) (ex. U.S.), so they became legally proper multi-nationals if the other country/countries permitted it. This loophole was closed in the revision to the Japanese Nationality Laws in 1985, but those Japanese born prior to 1985 were grandfathered in and remain legally multi-national.

Naturalization story from a British JET

2011-04-18T10:03:00.001+09:00

jet stories in the BigDaikon

I found this story on the BigDaikon, appropriately titled "Turning Japanese," and got the permission of the author to republish it.

When I boarded the plane at Heathrow back in July 1999, I knew I was leaving Britain for good. And now it's official. On February 17th 2006 my British Citizenship ceased to be, and on 4th April, I became a Japanese Citizen by permission of the Minister of Justice Seiken Sugiura. Here's the story of how I stopped being one of you, and started being one of us.

As is fairly common knowledge, the first requirement for any foreign national considering taking citizenship is that they must be resident in Japan for a minimum of five consecutive years. My five year mark came around the summer of 2004, whereupon I started to consider quite seriously the possibility of taking the plunge. The ideas mostly came up as disjointed fragments, such as when I was applying for a visa extension, how nice it would be if I had a Japanese passport and could skip the whole ordeal. These fragments came and went however, and never really formed into a distinct plan until one Hanamaguri-kun, a new face at BD, started to speak about his own application for citizenship and subsequent acceptance. Although I was openly quite critical of his motives, his explanations crystallised my own thoughts on the matter, and in a literal moment of enlightenment, I woke up one morning and it just made complete sense that citizenship was the only way forward. By coincidence, this was exactly 10 years after a similar moment of enlightenment, whereby I woke up knowing I should move to Japan.

I'd like at this point to put my cards squarely on the table and state outright exactly what my own reasons for taking citizenship were. Some are more important than others, but listed in no particular order:

Convenience
No more visa hassles, no more re-entry permits, no alien registration card to carry, free access to the job market etc.
Legitimacy
Full legal identity via koseki (family register), name appears in rightful place on juminhyo (residency certificate) etc.
Security
No fears of deportation, fuller legal protection, voting privilege etc.
Warm fuzzy feeling
A sense of being an insider, as opposed to a half-arsed fence sitter.

If I had to choose, I'd probably put the "warm fuzzy feeling" category at the top of the importance chart, for the same reasons that most people get married. Sometimes a sheet of paper is more than just a sheet of paper, and living out the rest of my days as an outsider just felt… wrong, somehow.

Then of course I had to consider the negative aspects. As far as I could see, there were two significant reasons why I should just keep things as they are. Those were, again in no particular order:

The necessity of giving up my former nationality. EU passports open a lot of doors and are considered quite desirable, so this took serious consideration. In Japan however, an EU passport is next to useless, so ultimately it wasn't a difficult decision. I just have to remember to join the longer queue next time I'm entering Britain.
An excruciatingly intrusive and drawn out application process. More on that later…

At this stage, what I would now refer to as the wrong end of the excruciatingly intrusive and drawn out application procedure, I was still formulating a plan, and decided it might be time to have a chat with Mr Hanamaguri-kun. He was kind enough to fill me in on many of the specifics of the procedure, and despite some aspects making my eyes bleed, I felt I was well forewarned of what was to come. I also figured it might be an idea to make my intentions known to certain people who may care or object. Parents and friends offered no objection, so all was good to go. Present date: mid-October 2004.

A quick search on the internet got me the phone number of my nearest Legal Affairs Bureau in Kudan, and a short call later I had an appointment for an initial "chat" the next morning at 10. As the main Tokyo office, I would have thought they'd been busier, but then I guess it is a fairly unusual procedure. The chat was to be the first of many, and involved sitting in a cubicle with bureau staff outlining my background (country, parentage, siblings, marriage status etc.) and eligibility. The eligibility criteria was basically 5 years of residency, functional use of Japanese (no official test required), some kind of financial security (ability to work or family ties), and no history of violent uprising against the Japanese government. They were quite specific on this last point. For homework, I was required to obtain 2 copies (with A4 translations) of my birth certificate, my brother's birth certificate, parents' marriage certificate, a note from my mum confirming I was the product of her marriage to my dad, my university graduation certificate and the ex-wife's koseki. It took about 1 month to get these documents sorted and translated.

On the next visit, I submitted these, and once they were all approved, I was given instructions to provide the MAIN documentation. Most of these were in pre-printed sheets that needed to be filled in, but there was still a fair amount of shopping required at.

From memory, these were as follows:

Naturalisation application form + photo.
Family relations form detailing who I'm related to and where they can be contacted, their thoughts on what I'm doing etc.
Personal history form - birth to now, every address, school, workplace, violent uprising against the Japanese government, and any other major life events to be detailed.
Finances form - income, monthly expenses, debts, bank balances etc. with photocopies of bank book pages.
Proof of employment (letter from boss), taxes paid (from ward office), residence (housing contract) etc.
Paper alien registration certificate expanded to include all addresses for the past five years.
Addresses and maps to all addresses and workplaces for the past 5 years.
Photocopies of every passport page including blank ones.
An essay, handwritten, on "why I want citizenship."
Two photographs of me with Japanese people (really!)

And I got off lightly. Many of the forms to be filled out simply didn't apply to my situation, so I got to skip those ones.

This took another few months to prepare, with the essay proving to be particularly confounding. The real killer though was on the comparatively simple naturalisation application form itself - that was where I would have to specify the name that I would take once citizenship is granted. A katakana rendering of my former name would have been acceptable to them, but it seemed a bit crap to me and a sorry burden on any future offspring, so I opted for kanji. However, after literally months of trying to decide one I was coming up blank. At the last minute, I filled in the best name I could come up with, but regretted doing so right up until July, six months later, when a friend suggested a much better one. It took a couple of phone calls and some extra paperwork to change it, but I'm glad now I did… So I submitted the remainder of the paperwork, which was approved, and I was sent off to await further contact.

Further contact came late in March, where I was ordered back to the bureau (now my fourth visit) for an official interview by the officer in charge of my case. He was a fairly pleasant chap and asked pretty simple questions such as my motivations for naturalising, and what kind of lifestyle I lead. I avoided using words like "alcoholic" and it was all pretty unthreatening. Later that day he dropped by the house to check the contents of my fridge. This too was not the cause of any problems as I'd been careful to clear out all the old beer cans and wine bottles earlier, but he wouldn't give any feedback at the time other than to say that every twitch was going in his report and he'd get back to me in a few months.

A few months later, July if I recall, he did just that. As the application is in its final stage, it is required that I renounce my former citizenship and provide proof to the MOJ that this has been done, he told me. This stage was news to me, as I'd always gathered that once citizenship was granted, you had a 2 year grace period to renounce at your leisure (or forget at own risk). It would appear though that as with exchanging driving licences, special rules apply to Geneva Convention signatories. Geneva gives with one hand and takes away with the other it appears. So, I contacted the British Embassy who sent me a form to fill in and send back with 150 UKP and a full birth certificate. Interestingly enough, the guidebook that accompanied the form stated in very clear terms that anybody renouncing their citizenship in order to take citizenship of another country **may reapply for the renunciation to be nullified once the new citizenship has been secured**, should one so desire. I do not desire, but it's a handy safety net should Japan sink into the sea, be burned to a crisp by volcanic lava, turn into a giant boxer and get knocked out by another country sized boxer, or any other fate wished upon Japan by Korean elementary school students in response to a minor territorial dispute concerning a couple of uninhabitable rocks in the middle of the Japan Sea. Additionally, the initial renunciation automatically expires after 6 months if another country has not laid claim to my being, so filling out and sending off the form did not cause any major headaches.

The waiting period for that form to get stamped and returned to me was another matter altogether. It had be sent to the Home Office in Croydon to be stamped, and could take as much as 3 months, they told me. It in fact took 7 months. 7 months of endless phone calls, letters, emails, faxes and personal visits to the embassy and Home Office trying to find out what the hell was going on, before I eventually received the certificate mid-March 2006. I had a professional translator acquaintance knock up a quick Japanese version, and I dropped it off at the Legal Affairs Bureau that same evening.

3 weeks later, on 5th April, I was contacted by the Bureau on my mobile phone and told my application had been approved the day before and that I was to drop in at 11:00 the morning of the 13th to pick up the certification. The news was delivered so nonchalantly that it took most of the length of the call for me to work out that there wasn't in fact some minor problem with the application requiring my urgent attention. I felt a little like I'd been robbed of the "overjoyed" or "stunned" reaction I was led to believe I would experience. Nonetheless, I headed for the bureau on the 13th as requested, and the event took the form of a mini-ceremony where myself and about 25 others were called up by our new names one by one to take our certificates, and a very short speech about being good citizens and things. It kind of reminded me of my graduation ceremony from university, where I was naturally already fully aware of the result beforehand, but it wasn't until that moment when my name got called that I got to feel pride in what I'd achieved. I don't know why I opted to wear a suit that morning, but I felt very glad I did.

With certificate in hand, it remained only for me to visit the local ward office to cancel my alien registration and register for a new koseki as a Japanese citizen, which I completed later that day. The end.

Epilogue

At the time of writing (late April) it's hard to tell what's changed really. I'm still in the process of informing the various services and accounts of the name change, but I have to continue to use my old name at work to avoid confusion (recently married people who take their partners' surnames are given a similar treatment). My driving licence will continue to show my old name and nationality on the front face until renewal in two years, and I have no need for a passport in the immediate future. In fact the only times I really get to notice that anything's different is when I visit the ward office to pick up paperwork - the staff invariably try to point me towards alien registration, and have a lot of trouble accepting my story that I'm not actually a foreigner. An easy mistake I'm sure. Even the police skirted over the whole absence of alien registration card when I got pulled over the day before I had the licence updated, and merely took me at my word that I had conveniently naturalised the week before. Perhaps if they'd been a bit more suspicious it would all seem more real… But a lot has changed, even if I can't see the whole picture just yet, and I expect it to become increasingly evident as time goes on. In hindsight, I'm sure it was worth it. Yup!

May 17, 2006