Becoming Japanese

People that naturalize to become U.S. citizens must pass a U.S. citizenship test to become legally American. There are lots of web sites that teach you how to pass it. For Japan, there is no quiz. The only thing that comes close is the need to be able to speak and read Japanese during the interviews with the case workers. Technically speaking, it's part of the requirement that you can demonstrate that you have the skills to provide for your livelihood in Japan. If your Japanese language skills are weak, they may actually ask you to take a small quiz demonstrating that you have the Japanese literacy (as in Japanese sinogram and syllabet recognition and recall) ability of a primary/elementary school student in the third (3rd) grade. However, unlike the U.S. Citizenship Test for naturalization — which can be taken in languages other than English for certain applicants — your interviews will not have any sort of questions testing your knowledge of Japanese civics or history. A...

Three AKB48 members encourage Tokyo citizens to vote. Yes, they're old enough to vote. This month, on December 16th, Japan will be holding a major election for various seats due to 野田佳彦総理大臣 { NODA Yoshihiko sōridaijin } (Prime Minister Yoshihiko NODA) dissolving the lower house (House of Representatives, or 衆議院 { shūgiin } ). Additionally, Tokyoites will vote for a new governor. It's a very important election, as there are major issues surrounding the debt crisis & raising the consumption tax, free trade liberalization with the TPP , foreign affairs & sovereign territory disputes, energy policy & nuclear power, and a potential shift in representation for the majority party (currently 民主党 { minshutō } } — the Democratic Party of Japan — which has no relation to the political party of the same name in the United States) as well as the governor of Tokyo, who presides over an area that has a larger population and GDP than many countries in the world. How does ...

When we first started putting up scanned paper forms in our Docs page a few years ago, it was possible to make Google Docs based text files using raw HTML , which allowed us to do some pretty advanced formatting for many of the naturalization application forms that we wanted to distribute (which aren't easily available from other sources). Using web browser friendly HTML made sense at the time for two reasons: it allowed accessibility from mobile devices that didn't have word processor programs, and it allowed the text in the documents to be easily searchable from the web. Times have changed, though, so we're changing with it. We've completely redone the Docs page , adding Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word documents for many of the forms (and we will continue to add more). We've even added some documents that weren't there before (such as the Korean applicant samples from the てびキ { tebiki } (Handbook). We've also linked many of the documents to correspo...

[This post has been edited and corrected to reflect input, feedback, and research received directly from Robert Whiting. The original post hypothesized that there was no evidence in the Official Gazette proving that Nicola Zappetti had naturalized.] Robert Whiting is the author of the book, "Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan" . The bestselling book in Japan is a combination history lesson about postwar Japan corruption and a biography of a Italian-American, Nicola Koizumi né Nick Zappetti, who came to Japan as a U.S. Marine, right after its defeat in World War II, and proceeded to use Japanese yakuza and American mafia organized crime connections and the black market to make a name for himself in the new rebuilding Japan. He supposably is credited with making American style pizza popular in downtown Tokyo and establishing Roppongi as the nightlife place to be. In the twilight of his life in Japan, he eventually loses everyt...

This question came from a reader from the internet. Every situation is different, but to answer your question in the simplest way, the answer to your question is yes, naturalization as a family/group is possible, and some of the forms — such as the 親族の概要 { shinzoku no gaiyō } (Relatives Overview) — even have sections where you mark those who are applying with you as a set. The reason for this should be obvious. If a family member wants the unconditional right to be in Japan for the rest of his or her life, it makes obvious sense that he or she would want the family he lives with to have the same right as well. If it becomes clear, in the very unlikely case, that one or more of the family would not qualify for naturalization yet others would, the family would be consulted as to how they wish to proceed before anything that is irreversible would occur. In fact, if you look at the 官報 { kampō } (Diet's Official Gazette) listings, you'll see that families naturalizing...

Depending on the country, sometimes the Japanese naturalization procedures require you to renounce your former citizenship(s) after acquiring Japanese citizenship -- within two years. This is for countries like New Zealand and the United States. However, For most countries, such as South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the People's Republic of China, Japan requires you to renounce/legally abandon your former nationalities prior to receiving Japanese naturalization. Note that they won't ask you to do this until they've confirmed that every other detail of your application process will pass the requirements, so there's no risk of you renouncing your citizenship and then finding out that you won't be receiving Japanese citizenship. Even so, some countries have a "safety boomerang" clause for their renunciation procedure. For example, if citizens of the United Kingdom renounce their citizenship but do not manage to acquire another citizenship within six mon...

There aren't too many books out there about naturalization to Japanese. All of the ones I've found are written in Japanese (of course) and are often written from the perspective of teaching a Japanese person working for a legal service on how to advise a non-Japanese for the naturalization process. Most of the good ones are written by those who are in the visa/naturalization business and have had experience advising non-Japanese on how to naturalize. This is one of those books. Title 日本国籍取得ガイド { Nihon kokuseki shutoku gaido } (Japanese Nationality Acquisition Guide) 帰化申請マニュアル　完全版 { kikashinsei manyuaru kanzenban } (Naturalization Application Manual Complete Version) Author 前田　修身 { MAEDA Osami } ISBN 978- 4-88399-120-4 Publisher すばる舎 { Subarusha } (Subarusya) Editions 1st edition: 2001-Apr-25 2nd edition: 2004-Jun-13 List Price ¥1,600 (+ tax) Mr. Maeda runs his own law office, titled 国籍問題研究所 { kokuseki mondai kenkyūsho } (Nationality Problem Resear...

If you are married to a Japanese when you decide to take Japanese citizenship, there are (at least) two decisions you will need to make not by yourself, but with your spouse as well: What to do about the family name? When you are a foreigner married to a Japanese, the two can have 別姓 { bessei } (separate last names) because the foreigner is not part of a Japanese family register, which groups all family members under the same family name. Once you naturalize, though, you have to unify under the same name for the purpose of a unified single Japanese family register. This means one of three options: Does your spouse take your foreign name, translated/transliterated into Japanese script: 漢字 { kanji } (Japanese sinograms) using 当て字 { ateji } (phonetically/meaning approximated characters), or 仮名 { kana } (Japanese syllabet)? Do you take your spouse's name? Do you pick an entirely separate new family name, and both of you go with this name? This could be a combination of ...

The OECD recently updated its data breaking down the number of naturalizations that occur in the countries of the world, and pointed out the top countries that do it. Most people don't think of Japan as a country where many people obtain nationality through naturalization, but considering there are hundreds of countries (193) in the world, it's surprising to see Japan in the top fifteen. Japan handily beats out countries such as Ireland, Denmark, and Austria when it comes to annual naturalization. What's surprising to me is generally Japanese, the language, is less commonly known by non-Japanese compared to the European languages (including English) spoken by some other countries in Europe. The size of the economy and thus the perceived availability of jobs may be a factor in this. Probably coming as no surprise to anybody is the fact that United States naturalizations beat the rest of the world, dwarfing the second place Russia. Making up most of the top ten are ot...

With the changes in the immigration and alien registration system that went into effect from July 9, all applicants for naturalization are now required to obtain and submit their 入出国記録 { nyūshukkoku kiroku } (Japan entry/exit record) with full disclosure of all the information in their 外国人入出国記録マスタファイル { gaikokujin nyūshukkoku kiroku masuta fairu } (alien entry/exit master file). This master file covers all periods during which the individual has been present in Japan, not only for the current consecutive stay, but also for any previous visits. In addition to the record of entries/exits, here are some examples of the information that a typical individual’s record might contain: Date and port of original entry, 在留資格 { zairyū shikaku } (status of residence) granted at entry (often referred to in the vernacular as“type of visa”), 在留期限 { zairyū kigen } (date of status expiration) Date of 外国人登録 { gaikokujin tōroku } (alien registration), Alien Registration Card No., and infor...

One of of followers, who is currently going through the process of naturalization, contributed this information regarding the Statement of Birth that　the mother is supposed to complete: Quite interestingly, my case worker told that the form 申述書 { shinjutsusho } Statement [of Births] (in its current format) is to be used IF only mother is alive. If both mother and father BOTH are alive then we are supposed to use slightly different format. This is interesting as both my mother and father are alive, they have never been divorced or had children with other people, and the case worker was obviously aware of this as he had both of my parents birth certificates and their marriage certificate. Yet I was told to fill out the other form. The explanation makes sense though, as the only difference in the information on my form is that only the information about the mother (and her　descendants) is provided. The form that was provided by a person currently going through the process, howev...

When you become Japanese, you need an official "Japanese" name for you newly created 戸籍 { koseki } (family register). Contrary to popular belief on the internet, this does not necessarily mean you need to abandon your original name. It does, however, mean you need to transcribe your name into the scripts used by the language of the land, Japanese: all or a combination of ひらがな { hiragana } & カタカナ { katakana } (Japanese syllabet) and/or 漢字 { kanji } (Japanese-style sinograms). So even if you keep your original name, you will still need to adapt it to the script of the land. This is called "transcribing." Transcribing is usually more of an interpretation of either the original spelling or pronunciation, rather than an exact 1-to-1 mapping. This is because there is often more than one "correct" way to transcribe a name, and also due to compromises you need to make for sounds that exist in one language that don't exist in the other. This is...

If you own a business, they may physically visit the business to verify its existence is not solely on paper. While they never visited or called (I think) my place of business, they have called the place of business of other people who are currently applying. To quote one person who is corresponding with Becoming legally Japanese : "... [M]y boss said the MOJ called her last week to ask about me, when I started and whether I was a good employee. Guess they really do employment background checks." Whether or not they physically visit a place of business depends on how easy it is to confirm the business' existence on paper. If you work for a major company that is a household name, it's unlikely they will drop by to see if the place exists. Just be sure that if they call that your employer at least knows who you are and that they may get a call from the 法務省 { hōmushō } (Ministry of Justice). My employer, for example, has a main line and is trained to igno...

A person from south-east Asia, who is currently going through the naturalization process in Tokyo, has been communicating with Becoming legally Japanese throughout the process. They wish to remain anonymous for now (most do until they are accepted), but they sent me us interesting update the other day that I was given permission to share: I just had my final interview (hopefully) at the Tokyo Homukyoku and house inspection this morning after submitting my application at end of April. The case officer went through my papers asking why I moved addresses and motives behind switching from one company to another - followed by having me fill-out a form stating I will give up my US and [southeast Asian country] nationalities once I naturalize to Japan. He then told me to go home first and came about 30mins after I got back. The home inspection was less than 5 minutes and had none of the going through your fridge rumors. Some comments: I had figured that home inspections occu...

The second Japan document that can take considerable time to obtain is the 出入国記録 { shutsunyūkoku kiroku } (Japan exit/entry record), and in my opinion it represents a significant new document requirement for naturalization . The 出入国記録 { shutsunyūkoku kiroku } was previously not required, although it may have been recommended in order to complete 履歴書（その２） { rirekisho (sono ni) } which is a record of exits from Japan over a period of 5 years (or less in some cases). The purpose of 履歴書（その２） { rirekisho (sono ni) } was to verify compliance with the requirement of not having been outside Japan for longer than 100 days consecutively or 150 days cumulatively during any year within the stipulated period. However, with revision of the alien registration system on July 9, the 法務局国籍課 { hōmushō kokusekika } (Legal Affairs Department Nationality Section) is now requiring the full record of ALL Japan entries/exits, not only for a current period residence, but for any and all previou...