Becoming Japanese

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...