Becoming Japanese

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 ...

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 pre...

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 e...

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 per...