Becoming Japanese

Today's question from both direct email to this site and on another site is about the eligibility for those that have served in the U.S. military. Can they become Japanese citizens? There are four angles to this question: the past wars, potential future wars, whether the U.S. will let you, and whether Japan will let you. From the Japanese side, they are perfectly fine with people who have served in the U.S. (or any other country) military, with one caveat: one of the listed requirements is that you have not joined a group that encourages the (violent, non-democratic) destruction of the modern Japanese government or the modern Japanese constitution. Now, this clause is intended to refer to terrorist organizations, both foreign and domestic — ex. オウム真理教 { Ōmu Shinrikyō } ( Aleph aka Aum Shinrikyo ) or the 日本赤軍 { Nihon Sekigun } ( Japanese Red Army aka JRA ) — but it can also apply to the military forces of a hostile foreign state. So, providing that the country does not go ...

How has your life in Japan changed since you became a Japanese citizen? For me, I still get the same amount of discrimination outside my community. Inside my community it has allowed me take my place in the social hierarchy.

Source: MoJ Nationality Department The above graph shows the amount of people that apply for Japanese naturalization every year, over the last ten years. The "applicants" gray background total for each year is not equal to the total of accepted and denied for every year because sometimes the acceptance or denial is not decided for an applicant until the next year. The green "accepted" data is the sum of the ROK & DPRK, the PRC, and other nationalities. The red "denied" includes people from all nationalities. The Koreas and the Chinese comprise the vast majority of the applicants for Japanese nationality. So much so that all the other countries (such as Brazil, the U.K., the U.S.) are all lumped together into the category "other", which is dwarfed by the Republic of Korea, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, and the People's Republic of China. Taiwan is counted as "other". Denials of applications have remain...

In the comments from the week before last I was discussing with another former American who is naturalized Japanese why Americans give up their U.S. nationality after acquiring Japanese nationality, as opposed to most cases (including the U.K.) where the situation is to give it up before  getting your proof of naturalized citizen identification. The reason for this is that American has two ways to give up citizenship: renouncement and relinquishment. When Americans become Japanese, they usually relinquish  their U.S. citizenship, they don't renounce  it. What's the difference? relinquishing means you willfully did something — that something being an expatriating act (such as swearing allegiance to another state [Japan]'s constitution and/or government) — and you willfully reported it — and you willfully did it knowing that doing so would cause loss of U.S. citizenship. If the last two "and"s and all the "willfull"s have you confused (wouldn...

There's a great article that I recommend reading in the Metropolis Magazine entitled " Poll Position ". It's also been picked up and republished by the site Japan Today . The Dharma/daruma doll, pictured here, is a good luck charm where one colors an eye to make a wish, and when the wish comes true, you color the other eye. They are a staple of Japanese political campaigns. Normally, the eyes are colored black. Given that the profiled politicians here are Caucasian, I thought the photo of a blue-eyed daruma (which is actually the color chosen for the eyes by upper house Councillor, } 弦念 丸呈 { ツルネン マルテイ ( Marutei TSURUNEN ), for his campaign daruma dolls. The other two politicians covered are } 茨城県つくば市 { Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi (Ibaraki Prefecture Tsukuba City) Councilman } ヘイズ・ジョン { HEIZU · Jon ( Jon HEESE ) and } 愛知県犬山市 { Aichi-ken Inuyama-shi (Aichi Prefecture Inuyama City) Councilman } ビアンキ アンソニー { BIANKI Ansonī ( Anthony BIANCHI ). Ibaraki Prefe...

One of the documents you'll need to complete as part of the application process is the 親族の概要 { shinzoku no gaiyō } (family outline). The form they give you is an empty table, six columns by six rows. You can download and print the form from this site's Documents and Forms page . You are to complete two of these forms: one version for your overseas relatives (both Japanese and non-Japanese); and another version of it is for relatives — both Japanese and non-Japanese — that live in Japan. You will mark which form is which at the top header, which will give you a multiple choice: （ 居住地区分 { kyojū chikubun } ／□ 日本 { nippon } 　□ 海外 { kaigai } ） Check the left box for the form with your relatives living in Japan. Check the right box for your relatives living outside of Japan. You need to list the following people (regardless of whether they are dead or alive), excluding yourself: 同居の家族 { dōkyo no kazoku } (all family living with you) 配偶者 { haigūsha } (spouse) ...

The short, realistic answer for 99.999% of the cases out there for naturalization is "no". For all practical purposes, naturalization can only be revoked on meeting both  of following two conditions: Something about the original naturalization process was fraudulent. In other words, there are intentional lies regarding financial status, background, nationalities, or criminal ties. "Fraudulent" includes not completing the entire process — for example, not renouncing your other nationalities in countries where renouncing is possible or not completing the nationality choice process ( 国籍選択届 { kokuseki sentaku todoke } ) for countries where renouncing is not possible or doing the wrong process for a particular country. Post World War 2, the most of naturalized citizens in the United States that have been denaturalized were stripped of their citizenship because they hid criminal associations on their naturalization application. Japan, under its modern post-WW2 Cons...