Bye bye Immigration, Hello Ministry of Justice

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 {kokusekika} is located here:

東京都千代田区
九段南１丁目１−１５
九段第２合同庁舎 8階‎
☎ 03-5213-1234		Kudanshita Government Building #2, 8th floor
Kudan-minami 1-1-15
Chiyoda Ward, Tōkyō Metropolis 〒102-8225
‎☎ 03-5213-1234



大きな地図で見る

In 大阪 {Ōsaka}, the 法務局 you want is located here:

大阪府大阪市中央区
谷町2-1-17
☎ 06-6942-1484		Tanimachi 2-1-17
Chūō Ward, Ōsaka City
☎ 06-6942-1484



大きな地図で見る

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