Can one get honorary citizenship or special residency registration in Japan?

Donald Keene was an honorary citizen
of Tokyo before he naturalized
and became a legal Japanese citizen

Throughout the world, there are all sorts of "honorary" statuses that cities give to living (and dead) people, animals, fictional characters, and even abstract concepts:

• Honorary degrees (i.e. Harvard & Princeton)
• Freedom of the City (also: Key to the City)
• Honorary citizenship (nations and municipalities)
• Honorary/special residency registrations (Japan)

Japan and its cities and prefectures are no exception. In Japan, an "honorary citizenship" has no basis in law as it is issued by the public relations department of a particular city. Because of this, there are often no defined legal steps one has to do to earn it. Foreigners are capable of achieving and earning "honorary citizenship" and "special residency registration" as well as Japanese nationals (naturalized or natural-born); for the particular case of special residency registration, one does not even have to be human or a real life object.

The term "citizen" and "citizenship" in English vs Japanese

In the United States and other countries, there is a legal and a non-legal meaning of "citizen" and "citizenship". The non-legal meaning can be as broad as "a person who lives in a particular place" or "the character of an individual who lives in a particular place (ex. "good citizenship award")

The legal meaning of "citizen" usually means "a person who legally belongs to a country and has the rights and protection of that country" and it has the nuance being different from a "subject", which is usually used to mean one legally belongs to a sovereign monarch.

Additionally, the word "national" exists and almost always has a legal meaning. While it is often used as a synonym for the legal meaning of "citizen", in some countries (such as the United States), a "national" is not legally the same thing as a "citizen"; all U.S. legal citizens are nationals but not all U.S. nationals are citizens.

In the Japanese language, the legal word "national" — especially "Japanese national" — is usually translated as 国民 {kokumin} or 日本国民 {Nippon kokumin}. These are the words used — both in English and Japanese — on a Japanese passport, not "citizen".

The word "citizen", when used to not necessary refer to the possession of a legal nationality, is usually translated to 市民 {shimin} (citizen / townsperson) or 市民権 {shiminken} (citizenship). Note the difference in the scope for the 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms):

Character core meanings
come from this great reference;
it should be part of your library.

国 {koku}

COUNTRY

1. nation, state
2. national, government-operated

市 {shi}

CITY / MARKET

1. city, town
2. city, municipality; suffix after names of cities

民 {min}

PEOPLE

1. people, nation, race
2. the people, populace, folk, civilians, citizens, inhabitants

When Japanese local governments give an "honorary citizen" award to a person, either Japanese or non-Japanese, the 四字熟語 {yoji jukugo} (four character compound word) used is 『名誉市民』 {"meiyo shimin"}, which implies not 『国民』 {"kokumin"} (national)

National Level Honors

It looks like a passport,
but it's about as useful as
a World Passport.

Some nations give out honorary citizenships at the national or federal level. America gives it out via an act of Congress and it has only been awarded seven (7) times as of 2014. Likewise, Canada has only given out honorary citizenship to six (6) people up to now. Similarly to America, Canada requires unanimous approval from its parliament. Australia made their first honorary citizen in 2013 to honor a Swedish diplomat who saved countless Jews during World War Ⅱ. South Korea gave honorary citizenship to ハーフ {hāfu} (mixed race) black Korean-American Hines WARD (하인스 워드 {Hainseu WODEU}), an NFL American football Super Bowl MVP, for his work in education about reducing racial discrimination in Korea.

Even when given out at the national level by the highest state power, the honor is symbolic. It does not give the person any special privileges or give them the rights and responsibilities of a legal national, despite the fact that its often much, much harder to be awarded the honorary citizenship than it is to earn real citizenship.

Jag älskar att vara svenska!
Vänta, jag måste vara en amerikan att bli president?
Nevermind!

There's a practical reason for honorary citizenship not making people "real" citizens: being a national/citizen of a country is not just about privileges and rights; it's also about duties and responsibilities to that country (not mere loyalty/identity, which is not something defined by law). A nationality links you and obligates you to a country's laws and constitution — even if you don't live in the country — just ask Americans who live and work abroad about their IRS tax obligations! does happen (sometimes called "accidental citizens"), it would be presumptuous for a country to force a set of duties & responsibilities upon someone if they didn't ask for them, no matter what rights & privileges come with the nationality.

Shamrock ≠ Four-Leaf Clover

There is only one country where "honorary citizenship" is encoded into its nationality law: Ireland. While called "honorary", in fact the Republic of Ireland's "honorary" citizenship grants full "real" citizenship rights & responsibilities to the recipient. An "honorary" Irish citizen can receive an Irish passport. Since 2013, honorary Irish citizenship (nationality) has been awarded eleven (11) times.

Presumably, because it's the real deal, the Irish government confirms with the intended recipient that they do indeed wish to receive the citizenship. The Irish government planned to give honorary Irish citizenship to JFK (who is of Irish-Catholic descent) when he visited the country as POTUS, but decided not to due to it being problematic diplomatically to award citizenship to a foreign head of state.

Japan also has a clause in its nationality law that allows the government to bestow nationality on anybody for any reason with the majority approval of both houses of the 国会 {kokkai} (Japan's Diet aka parliament): 大帰化 {tai-kika} (extraordinary naturalization). However, it is not called "honorary". It's not even called "extraordinary" in either English or Japanese, but because it isn't labeled, it is referred to as 大帰化 {tai-kika} in literature that talks about Japanese Nationality Law. While it has never been awarded in the history of modern Japan, most likely they would also confirm with the intended recipient as to whether they wanted it and the legal liabilities it could entail.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons that the Japanese government doesn't automatically grant citizenship to Special Permanent Residents (SPRs; 特別永住権 {tokubetsu eijūken}) at birth, converting them automatically into Japanese nationals: the forcing of Japanese nationality upon other nationalities was controversial during Japan's Empire Era. A nationality is not just a linkage to rights, but to responsibilities (and to a lesser non-legal extend, an ethnic identity), and there are some SPRs that don't want this. SPRs do have a special, expedited, and especially simplified path towards naturalization — easier than even the "simplified" naturalization (簡易帰化 {kan'i kika}) process.

Local Level Honors

Local governments around the world offer honorary citizenship. Indeed, because "city" and "citizen" have the same word root, this is most logical. The United States, for example, not just cities and towns, but some states as well give out equivalent honors. Korea, similar to Japan, gives out honors at different levels of geographical boundaries.

Types of "Honorary Citizenships" in Japan

Because 名誉市民 {meiyo shimin} (honorary citizen) awards are given out at the local government (地方自治体 {chihō jichitai}) level and not the national level in Japan, there are several types depending on the size of the governmental body making the award:

• 名誉都民 {meiyo tomin} (Honorary Citizen [of Tokyo])
• 名誉県民 {meiyo kenmin} (Honorary Prefectural Citizen)
• 名誉区民 {meiyo kumin} (Honorary Ward [of a special designated city] Citizen)
• 名誉町民 {meiyo chōmin} (Honorary Town Citizen)
• 名誉村民 {meiyo sonmin} (Honorary Village Citizen)
• 名誉郡民 {meiyo gunin} (Honorary County Citizen)

Losing Honorary Citizenship

Honorary Citizens of Dietramszell for 80 years

Unlike real legal citizenship, which is very hard to revoke due to Article 15 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, revoking honorary citizenship due to history is not uncommon. In the past, cities and towns were often compelled to issue these honors to totalitarian leaders and fascist dictators. After the loss of a war and/or their death, the honor is often revoked.

Adolph Hitler, totalitarian leader of Nazi Germany, was given honorary citizenship to over 4,000 cities across Europe (mostly in Germany and its occupied countries). Streets were also named after the Third Reich leader.

Even as recently as last year (2013), the German city of Dietramszell stripped Hitler and another Nazi party member of honorary citizenship. In 2010, the city of Dülmen removed the Fuehrer from their honorary citizen rosters.

Why has it taken so long for some cities to remove the (honorary) citizenship? A lot of paperwork and documentation was lost or destroyed (intentionally or accidentally) during and after the War. Even in some places where the records survived, debate continued for decades as to whether they should remove him; some cities thought that leaving the name on was appropriate to show future generations how their cities became mired in Nazi politics.

Until Death Do Us Part

Some cities believe that you officially lose your honorary citizenship upon death, though your name remains on the records for history. Nevertheless, for cases such as dead Nazi party members, some cities have argued that removing them from the record keeps other people on the record from being tarnished by association.

特別住民票 {tokubetsu jūminhyō} (Special Certificate of Residence)

Although it uses the word "special" (特別 {tokubetsu}), Special Certificate of Residence "registrations" having nothing to do with SPRs (Special Permanent Residents / 特別永住者tokubetsu eijūsha) or Special Naturalization (特別帰化tokubetsu kika) aka Simplified Naturalization (簡易帰化kan'i kika).

Because these "special" (as in "novelty") certificate of residences are often given to fictional and non-living entities, they are sold as souvenirs to tourists and spectators for a nominal fee of around ¥300 to ¥400.

Protest for equal representation in residency registration

In 2003, seventeen (17) foreign Japan resident activists protested a PR event where a wild/escaped/origin-unknown bearded seal dubbed "Tama-chan" (タマちゃん {Tama-chan}) was presented a "Special Certificate of Residence" by 横浜市西区 {Yokohama-shi Nishi-ku} (Nishi Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture) public relations department. At that time, residency registration was separate for Japanese and non-Japanese (non-Japanese registration having fields for status of residence and nationality that were not present in the for-Japanese national registration), and activists were using the catch line of "if you're going to give a [Japanese] certificate of residence to a seal, you should give it to foreigners too!" They painted whiskers on their faces and wore cosmetic black noses to make their point.

Tama the Seal fans in 埼玉県朝霞市 {Saitama-ken Asaka-shi} (Asaka City, Saitama Prefecture) claimed they spotted Tama in their city in the 荒川 {Arakawa} (Arakawa river), but city PR department decided not to issue the novelty certificate, on the logic that they couldn't confirm that the seal was actually "the" Tama.

One of many non-Japanese with a Special Certificate of Residence