Do you feel different regarding your identity after you naturalize?
The answer to this question is probably different for everyone, but for me at least, I have to say not really. Identity is something deeper than a passport or a name, and this is probably an issue you should consider carefully before starting the process.
In my case, I was never very patriotic or nationalistic or anything like that. It's not a matter of hating the US - I don't, and I could make a list of pros and cons about both the US and Japan that are about equal in length. But I grew up knowing that my great-grandparents had come from a handful of different European countries, not necessarily identifying with any of those hyphenated-American communities either, but knowing that nationality is not something that's set in stone. For me it was always a legal matter rather than a matter of pride. I was and am proud of being my parents' daughter and my grandparents' granddaughter, but "American" would have come pretty far down the list if I'd been trying to think of all the groups that made up my identity.
When I came to Japan for the first time, as a tourist, I felt like that one week wasn't enough and wanted to try living here. After a year as an exchange student, I cried myself to sleep on the plane on the way "home," because it didn't feel like home anymore. It's hard for me to explain all of the reasons. In the US I was always short and shy and not assertive enough and too worried about what other people think... and in Japan those things actually made it easier for me to fit in. Did I make cultural faux pas at first? Of course. And occasionally I still do. But in general it felt like I was discovering a home that I had never really known - not because of skin color or DNA, but more on the level of who I was as a person.
I do know that it devastated me every time I needed a copy of our 住民票 (local residency registration) or 戸籍 (family register), and my name wasn't on it. Of course I know that it's only a legal document, and that legal documents don't necessarily portray things like family ties as they truly are. But it still bothered me. My identity as my husband's wife and my children's mother and as one of the five people who does live - permanently, no less - in this house was always stronger than any identity I felt as an American. So, as silly as it may sound, I did have sentimental and emotional reasons for wanting one set of documents, but no pressing reason to want to hang on to the other.
Do I consider myself Japanese? Well, I suppose I consider myself "Naturalized Japanese." Unlike "American," "Japanese" implies an ethnic background that I don't have and a cultural background that I have imperfectly, having first been immersed in it as a teenager. But this is my home. I am.... happy isn't the right word, but perfectly content to pay my taxes here and I do vote, every time, because I consider the future of this country, city, and community to be my future as well. I don't know that I really think of myself as "American-Japanese," because then I would have to be "Italian-Slovakian-German-Dutch-American-Japanese" and... really, that's a mouthful. "Naturalized Japanese" fits me the best, I think, although that will probably vary from person to person.
But none of that happened after naturalization. I wouldn't have used the term "Naturalized Japanese" before it was true, but I already considered Japan my permanent home, and my hometown in the US a source of fond memories and a few old friends who have stuck around, but not a place I'll ever return to for more than a few weeks at a time. I was already more personally invested in Japanese politics than in American, and I always did - and still do - consider my family (by blood and by marriage) more important than any national identity will ever be. I suppose I'm an Ito first, a naturalized Japanese second, and an American-born Japanese third. So yes, I felt a little surge of pride when I held my first Japanese passport... but the concept of identity that led up to that pride was in place before I ever picked up the application for naturalization.
If you're hoping for a magical change, it probably won't happen. But if you already identify as "belonging" here, forever, whether as a naturalized Japanese or a hyphenated Japanese or just Japanese, period, you may want to think about whether your own knowledge of that is enough, or if you want the legal rights and official recognition that naturalization can provide.
Any differing opinions?
