Becoming Japanese

[All of these conversations occurred in Japanese] When I went to make my first appointment at the 法務局 { hōmukyoku } (Legal Affairs Bureau) in 九段下 { Kudanshita } , the public servant asked me the following question before I even gave my name: "Have you ever overstayed your visa, worked without a visa, committed an offence no matter how minor (including moving traffic violations) either in Japan or anywhere else in the world, or not paid your taxes or your Japanese pension or health insurance?" "No." "Okay, then. Normally you need to call in advance and it takes three to five weeks to see a representative, but you're in luck: somebody cancelled their 2:30pm, so we can fit you in there if you're willing to wait." I found it interesting that his very first question to me was regarding whether I had ever found myself on the wrong side of the law. No question about the time I've spent in Japan (which I thought would have been the obv...

If you're considering naturalizing to Japanese, you've probably already been in Japan for many years and possibly have renewed your status and your re-entry permit more times than you can remember. Thus, you've probably been to the immigration office and waited in more lines than you can think of. The good news is that the process for naturalization is not handled by immigration. As the kind immigration officer said to me when I first asked about the process in 品川 { Shinagawa } : "You've graduated from immigration. You want to go to the Legal Affairs Bureau. Completely different organization. Different building." So you do a web search and find the location of the nearest Legal Affairs Bureau. You go there, and they tell you, "most Legal Affairs Bureaus only handle real estate. You need to go to a big main office, not a branch office. One that has a Nationality Section." In 東京 { Tōkyō } , the 法務局 { hōmukyoku } with the 国籍課 { kokusekik...

Hi. My name is Eido Inoue. I'm the administrator of this blog and an author. Why does this blog exist? Before, during, and after I decided to naturalize to Japanese, a lot of people (especially non-Japanese) asked me questions about my choice. Through this experience, I learned these things: There are many pre-conceived notions about being Japanese that are simply false. There is not a lot of first-person information about the process in English from people that have gone through the process. A lot of people (especially foreigners in Japan) seemed to be interested in how it's done.  In the hopes of addressing these issues, I've started a blog consisting of authors who have gone through the experience and and willing to write about it in English. Thanks for reading! P.S. Yes, I know what the slang meaning of Turning Japanese means. I chose that domain name anyway because it's easy to remember.