Becoming Japanese

We can't refer to the protected images of the international winter games in Sochi, Russia Former South Korean national 安賢洙 { AN Hyonsu } — in ハングル { hanguru } (Korean syllabet): 안 현수 { AN Hyeonsu }  — in his English preferred spelling: Ahn Hyun-Soo — is a world-class short track speed skating champion. He changed his nationality from South Korea to Russia, becoming Виктор Ан { Viktor AHN } . He won three gold medals and one bronze for the Republic of Korea in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Now, in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, he has won a gold medal for the hosting country, the Russian Federation ( ロシア連邦 { Roshia Rempō } ). Athletes changing nationality is nothing new. What is unusual about Ahn is how high profile and how he had such a long and successful sports winning career with his previous country. Compared to most naturalized elite athletes, and his motives for changing nationality were a little unusual: he had a falling out with the sports asso...

reject, misfit, trailblazer, journalist / muckraker, writer / hack, pioneer / legend Patrick "Lafcadio" Hearn, who would later become 小泉八雲 { KOIZUMI Yakumo } , was a Greek Anglo-Irish* writer/journalist and English language teacher who might hold the distinction of being the very first person to legally acquire Japanese nationality via naturalization. He did this by marrying the daughter of a samurai who had just been stripped of his feudal class ranking due to the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 { Meiji ishin } ) and the introduction of Japan's first constitution: the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ( 大日本帝国憲法 { Dai-Nippon teikoku kempō } ), aka the Meiji Constitution ( 明治憲法 { Meiji kempō } ). * Although Hearn lived in America for much of his young adult life, he never legally became a U.S. citizen. It is assumed he was a British subject as his father was British and he was born on a Greek island that was British controlled. Why is he probably the first fore...