Not all Legal Affairs Bureaus are as busy as Tokyo

In a lot of the articles on this site, I have mentioned the system involving rooms for interviews, the call-in-advance for appointments with case officers, the assigned case officer (one for paper collection and one for when you're close to submission and the interview), that I experienced at the 法務局 {hōmukyoku} (Legal Affairs Bureau) 国籍課 {kokusekika} (Nationality Section) in 九段下 {Kudanshita}, which is located in central Tokyo. So far, the people who have done the process recently at the same office within recent years have confirmed that the process and protocols were pretty much the same for them? But what about places outside of metro Tokyo, which has a population of over 35 million? One would think that one may get by without the waits or appointments in a relatively rural area of Japan, but I've been surprised by reports from readers and others who have reported a much looser system with respect to applying compared to Tokyo, even in mega-cities/regions like Osaka (more then seven million people) and Saitama Prefecture (which is to Tokyo what New Jersey is to New York City).

Here is an account from one person doing the process in Osaka, and how his experience was different from the Tokyo experience — in at least six (6) different ways:

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1. No need for an appointment. Both when I called asking about going in just for information, and when I called saying that I've got most of the paperwork ready and would like someone to take a look at it, they said just come in anytime between 9 am and 3:30 pm.
2. No assigned case worker. Neither time did the staffer introduce himself, or in any way imply that he was assigned to me. At the end of the first visit he said call if I have questions and indicated the phone number but did not say to ask for him. When I called about going in to get my paperwork looked at they did not ask who I had seen the first time, and when I went in today they made no effort to direct me to the staffer I talked to last time. Just go to the first one open, like a bank teller. They mark their name and the date of the consultation on the list of required paperwork and that's it.
3. Osaka seems not at all busy. On the first visit there were maybe 6-7 people in the waiting room, but the 'take a number' machine indicated "0" waiting, and after taking a number I was called in less than 10 seconds. On the second visit there were 2 people (together) in the waiting room, again the machine indicated “0” waiting and I was called in less than 30 seconds. Both visits were at about 2:30 pm.
4. I don't know if this is different from Tokyo, but neither of these guys seemed too sharp, the second even less so than the first, so I’m just as happy to not have to feel that they are my “case worker”. They seem very much the very outer skin of the onion. Consequently, my paperwork “inspection” today was mostly just a confirmation that I had document somewhat corresponding to the required document. So now in the first "verification column I now have a lot of △ marks rather than ◯. There were two items he flagged: the letter from the US consulate confirming my citizenship (definitely the first time he had ever seen one, although the consulate was very confident that this was the type of letter they supply the homukyoku for naturalization, it even says at the bottom "Purpose for which this statement is required: To present to the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau in support of your application for Japanese naturalization.") and my wife's 戸籍謄本 {koseki tōhon} (official copy of family register) because it only had my former name listed for our marriage. For both items he went into a back room and came back and said they would be okay.
5. Never any mention of "simplified" naturalization, even though I’ve been a continuous resident for almost 35 years, married to a Japanese for more than 30 years, and a permanent resident for more than 20 years.
6. I was told that when I’ve got the rest of paperwork together and bring it in, it will take “30-40” minutes for some one (implying not these guys staffing the outer room, to go over it. I expect to be going back by the end of the month, so I’ll update you on that later.

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I'm surprised that Osaka (my registered domicile by the way, where I've lived for almost a decade and travel to frequently for visits with the in-laws) would have been so much more different from Tokyo. Although the population of Osaka is a fraction of Tokyo, it's still a mega-city, with a population that rivals the great cities of the world. Additionally, Osaka has historically been home to a large Korean population, which I would've assumed increased the workload for naturalization there, as Koreans are the largest ethnic group to naturalize to Japanese for the past decade.