Participating


HELP WANTED

You can do more than just read at this site. We allow and encourage more active participation using the following methods outlined below.

Most of this site, as well as its integration to other sites, uses Google technology. So if you're reading or using this site, you may want to first familiarize yourself with Google's:

Reading and Following

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Blogging for this site

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Are you a naturalized Japanese citizen? Are you in the process of naturalizing? Can you write in English? If so, we'd love to have you contribute posts or materials for this site! There is no pressure to meet any deadlines or quotas with respect to how much you write or how often. Unfortunately, there is no compensation for contributing. Almost all of the (very limited) revenues generated by this site are used to pay for domain name hosting and fees related to paperwork, etc. We don't make a profit.

As a general rule, we ask that the post authors not use pseudonyms.

We want our posts on this site to:
  • educate and inform both the English-only reading crowd (who may or may not have an interest in naturalizing to Japanese)
  • provide advice, personal anecdotes, and experiences regarding the naturalization process: before, during and after
  • Be written in English (with some Japanese when relevant) to cover all of our target audiences
Non-purposes of the blog are:
  • day-to-day life in Japan, except when it pertains to something unique about being naturalized (or perhaps to show that life as a naturalized Japanese is not so different from life as a non-Japanese or Japanese)
  • debating the abstract concepts of racism, multiple nationality, multicultural, or human rights issues in Japan; except as it applies to the naturalization process
Possible/optional purposes of the blog (up to you!) are:
  • discussing about personal reasons for example — the content of the 動機曞dōkisho (motivation essay) or how you felt signing the 宣誓曞senseisho (oath) — for wanting to naturalize
  • discussing how life in Japan is different as a naturalized Japanese vs being non-Japanese
Additionally, as the information about naturalization on the blog becomes complete, I would like to focus on how-to and procedures for activities within Japan that are available only to Japanese, such as:
  • being a 公務員kōmuin (public servant; fire fighter, police office, public servant)
  • running for office
  • being a lay judge; 裁刀員saiban'in
  • voting
Because the experience for the paperwork and the giving up of citizenship is different for every country, we are looking for a variety of people, particularly people with citizenship experience (due to their commonness in Japan and unique quirks in their citizenship laws) from these locales:
  • United States
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • People's Republic of China
  • South Korea
  • North Korea
  • Russia
  • Germany
  • Taiwan
  • Hong Kong
  • Brazil
  • Philippines
  • India
If you're interested, please contact the site administrator(s).

Donating & Advertising

Really, not necessary, but thank you. If you find the ads on this site interesting, don't be afraid to check the products and services out! This site uses Google AdSense to monetize ads. You can set your preferences as to what types of ads you want to see by setting your Google Ads Settings. You can use this to opt out of tracking or block certain campaigns.

Popular posts from this blog

How much did it actually cost to naturalize?

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Pennies, compared to most other developed countries In 2010, an article was published here about how much it costs to apply for naturalization. It was true then, and it's still true now in 2022: The application itself is free . ¥0, nada, zilch. Compare that to the US ($725) , UK (£1,330) , Germany (€255) . However, there are many things throughout the process that can cost money: getting your civil documents both in Japan and your home country, tax documents, driving record, etc. You will also to make personal appearances to your local Legal Affairs Bureau. Here I will talk about how much it cost me personally, including the cost of gathering all documents, photocopying, travel, etc. List of Expenses Below is the list of my naturalization-related expenses. All told, it cost me about ¥18,500 to make a successful application. It is worth repeating: There is no application fee . Everything in the list above are expenses related to getting documents I need to submit with my naturaliza...
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Types of Japanese Passports

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The vast majority of people that naturalize will probably apply for a "red" Japanese passport after their 戞籍 { koseki } (family register) is created — which takes about a couple weeks followed by a few weeks for the passport to be issued. It is not necessary to apply for a passport. Just like the United States, the vast majority of the populace never actually travels outside of their country for their lifetime. However, realisticly speaking, it's very likely that a naturalized person would have a Japanese passport as they most likely have family ties overseas. Language The passport is in two languages: English and Japanese. Very old passports, similar to my U.S. passport, also had French, the language of diplomacy. My oh my, how the French empire's influence has faded. My last U.S. passport added Spanish. My oh my, how South, Central, and Latin America's influence has increased! ☺ On current Japanese passports, the message from the Minister of Foreig...
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All about Japanese personal inkan/hanko/chops/seals

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"signing" a payment slip at a bank In Japan (and other Asian countries), it is traditional practice to use an 印鑑 { inkan } ( aka 印章 { inshō } ) — colloquially called a 刀子 { hanko } in Japanese or "chop" in British English — instead of a signature for acknowledging / signing / accepting documents. Pedantically speaking, a 刀子 hanko is the actual stamping object, and an 印鑑 inkan is the ink impression that is made, but many native Japanese use the two words interchangeably. In the 21st century, Japanese recommend having three types of seals: one for casual informal acceptance: 認印 { mitomein } one for your bank accounts: 銀行印 { ginkō-in } the "real" registered one: ( 実印 { jitsuin } ) While it's perfectly possible to use just one seal for all of these functions, most people use at least two or three for the same reason that people should use different passwords for different services on the internet: in the case of a compromised s...
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