Did the Ministry of Justice ever FORCE those who naturalized to take "Japanese-sounding" names?
For many years naturalized citizens were required to adopt a Japanese family name¹. The Ministry of Justice determined in July 1983 that naturalizing citizens were no longer required to adopt Japanese names. As of that time most naturalizing citizens were Koreans². A well-known example of someone who did not adopt a Japanese name is Masayoshi Son, the wealthiest man in Japan as of 2007, who naturalized using his Korean family name rather than the Japanese family name he used during his youth³.I was curious as to where it got this information, so I looked at the sources. There were three, all English:
- The Boston Globe: "In Japan, Koreans still feel sting of discrimination" by Charles A. Radin (July 29, 1994)
- Hoover Press: "Japan Disincorporated: The Economic Liberalization Process" by Leon Hollerman (1988)
- The Washington Post: "Masayoshi Son was among the first to flout Japan's business establishment; now he is one of the nation's wealthiest businessmen; Jump-Starting Japan Inc.; Nation's Slide Paves Way for New Breed of Entrepreneur" by Sandra Sugawara (May 9, 1999)
The second Hoover Press textbook source is referring to the 28th footnote (page 171) of the text, which says:
"As another step towards internationalization, in July 1983 the Justice Ministry decided that naturalized citizens (most of whom are Korean [in 1983; in 2015 most are Chinese]) would no longer be required to adopt Japanese names."As the author gave a month and year, checking the official Diet records was possible. It turns out the author and/or the source(s) he used misunderstood the MoJ's policy. The actual policy, which was clarified and explained to House Councillor 竹ææ³°å in the 147th regular session of the Diet — 第ïŒïŒïŒååœäŒ（åžžäŒ） — in response to a formal submitted question regarding Japan's enforcement of the treaties related to the UN's CERD which Japan ratified, was:
- The MoJ never required naturalization candidates to choose new names which "appeared Japanese" (「æ¥æ¬äººããã」).
- They did, however, for a time in the late seventies and eighties, advise applicants to choose names that would enable them to best "establish themselves as a Japanese national in Japanese society with the least amount of obstacles and hindrances." This advice was not given to just Koreans, but to all naturalization applicants. The implication is that the names given to them would be easy to use (for paperwork), remember and say by the majority of the population.
- They realized though, that this could appear that the government was endorsing a policy that ethnic appearing or sounding names were being discriminated against or eliminated, so they adopted the following policies:
- Case workers now only advise applicants regarding names if they ask, or if the name might have unexpected negative consequences. For example, if a candidate named "Gary" decides to use 『ã²ãª』 for his Japanese given name, the case worker might advise him that word means "diarrhea" (äžç¢) in Japanese and he might want to change or alter the spelling or pronunciation. Additionally, candidates with names not connected to Chinese character areas (挢åå) and choose åœãŠå (phonetically matching sinograms to foreign words) might get advise as to characters and/or character combinations that have unexpected or negative meanings⁑.
In the example åž°åèš±å¯ç³è«æž (naturalization permission application form) inside the åž°åèš±å¯ç³è«ã®ãŠã³ã (naturalization permission application guide) which is part of the documentation applicants receive, they show the most common case among applicants in the example paperwork showing the "before naturalization" names for a fictitious South Korean applicant, 『é éŸäœ』, but and making the åž°ååŸã®æ°å (name after naturalization) name the same as the é称 (alias) name, which is the most common case for applicants.
2002 data from Åsaka City Foreign Residents Measures Experts Committee
Prior to this, both the alias field and the after-naturalization fields contained generic Japanese-sounding names like 『å±±æ¬å€ªé』 — this name is similar to "John Doe" or "Jane Smith" in American English in that it's often used as an example due to its commonness.
The example paperwork mimics the most common case for its applicants in the sixties, seventies, and eighties: most applicants were Korean†, and they did have Japanese-appearing official aliases and they did choose the same name as their alias (often a name they had been using exclusively for their whole life in Japan) for their "new" post-naturalization name. Often times, the new names chosen were loosely based on their original Korean names.
é becomes é¢å£
Example conversions (both sinogram changes and reading changes):- é→éæ¬、éç° åŒµ→匵æ¬、å®→å®ç°
- éæµ·é→éæµ·、å å±±æ→å å±±、平山ç³→平山
- é»→å ±ç°、åŽ→å±±äœ、æŽ→æšäž
- å→å、æ³→æ³ etc.
However, Japan's Ministry of Justice decided to eliminate the examples as they feared that their attempts to be "helpful" were being interpreted as a rule or an attempt to coerce applicants into choosing a Japanese name over a non-Japanese ethnic (Korean, Chinese, etc.) name.
Year 2000 data from the Åsaka Prefecture Board of Education - As part of Ministry internal anti-discrimination campaigns, they increased written reminders, as well as revised their training, to remind case workers and staff to be careful on how they communicate and what they recommend regarding names for naturalization candidates.
 |
| 2002 data from Åsaka City Foreign Residents Measures Experts Committee |
Two Public Figures
There are two high-profile ethnic Koreans who have claimed or implied in the press that they were forced to choosing a Japanese sounding name:Korean-Japanese activist æŽå® (né æ°äºå®)
 |
| Multicultural Human Rights Education Center |
He naturalized to Japanese nationality in 1971. At that time, he claims, he was forced to take a Japanese name, so he did, choosing: 『æ°äº』). After marrying a Japanese national and having a child and reflecting on the meaning of names and its effect on children, he decided to change it back. So in 1987, he went to court and had his name changed back to his Korean ethnic name. Note that æžç± (Japanese family unit registers) do not record the readings for Japanese national names, so how he chose to read his name was not relevant to the court.
 |
| New immigrants to Japan don't do this. |
Softbank CEO å«æ£çŸ© (ì ì ì né å®æ¬æ£çŸ©)
 |
| Emoji was a hit on the iPhone. 1seg TV tuner? Not so much. |
However, obtaining Japanese nationality was not simple. The Ministry of Justice did not accept him. "Son" was not a Japanese surname. It was unprecedented. If he wanted to be naturalized as a Japanese citizen, he had to assume a Japanese name. Son came up with a plan. In Korea, husbands and wives have different surnames, so his wife's name remained "Ohno." Therefore, his wife, a Japanese citizen, went to court to change her name from "Ohno" to "Son." Son visited the Ministry of Justice and once again asked if there were any Japanese nationals named "Son." If there were precedence, the name would be accepted.While an interesting tale, I have a few questions about the narrative. The text explains that in Korea, husband and wives keep their family names (by law, actually, which is the opposite case for Japanese nationals). To clarify though, the reason they had and could have separate family names in Japan is not because he is Korean, but rather because non-Japanese do not have æžç± (Japanese family unit registers), and used a separate registration system called the Alien Registration System. His born-Japanese and ethnically-Japanese wife, Masami ÅNO, daughter of a prominent doctor, had both a Japanese given and family name.
The officer replied,
"There's one. It's your wife."
Thus, a Japanese named Masayoshi Son came to be.
Family registers in Japan during that time were not digitalized, and were kept dispersed throughout the country at one's Registered Domicile (æ¬ç±). There's no realistic way for a naturalization case officer to search through all the names (currently alive and historical) to look for a name precedent, as this would require examining decentralized paperwork spanning the country. Perhaps the author misunderstood and the case officer was actually presented the name proof by the applicant.
Furthermore, the account's logic that a "Japanese [appearing/sounding] name" was defined as one that a Japanese national has or had used in the past does not square with the explanation given by other sources, which say that applicants were encouraged to choose Japanese names. Ethnic Koreans do not have many family names (only a few hundred), and 『å«／ì』 is one of the top 25 names. Japanese, on the other hand, have over a hundred thousand family names due to historical reasons. Thus, there are many references to the name in literature and records throughout Japanese history. Confirming if these people were Japanese or not is next to impossible. There are examples throughout Japanese history of Japanese nationals having wild and exotic names that few Japanese would think are "Japanese." Additionally, there are examples of many naturalized people during the eighties and even before that who chose unique names — usually åœãŠå (sinograms used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words/names with little or no regard to the underlying meaning of the characters) — which most likely have never existed before in Japan.
Another explanation for what happened was that he got the name by becoming a å©¿å ¥ã, which is a process by which a man joins a woman's existing family register, thereby taking her family's name. While this is not rare, there is no documentation to suggest that he actually did this.
A Newsweek article ("Japan's Rising Son", by George WEHRFRITZ, 1999-Dec-26) says that he decided to revert back to his legal Korean ethnic name when he was studying in California as an adult:
In the free environment of California, Masayoshi Yasumoto decided he no longer had to pretend to be Japanese. "After he left, he wrote me a letter and another to the entire school, saying he was Son, not Yasumoto," [Itsuo] Abe told NEWSWEEK. "His explanation was that he needed to use his real name to simplify paperwork, but my impression was that he was freeing himself from an old burden."
It is not crystal clear from his biography when he decided to begin using his Japanese alias. In the biography, it says that his legal Korean ethnic name was used in primary school, and that he was using a Japanese alias in middle school; both of these school linked events were accompanied by stories of teachers mispronouncing his name: an early incident where the teacher reads his ethnic Korean name with a Japanese èšèªã¿ (Japanese reading) and a middle school incident where the teacher reads his Japanese alias with an é³èªã¿ (old Chinese based reading).
Additionally, you can't check the Official Gazette (å®å ±) either, as only the "before" naturalization names (in either ã㪠(Japanese syllabet) or 挢å (sinograms) are listed‡. And public records do not indicate whether a name is truly considered to be "ethnic" or "Japanese-ish" or not, nor do public records indicate whether one is naturalized or even if the name is an alias or stage name. Even politicians with very common "Japanese-ish" names can and do use stage names and aliases — usually ä»®å (Japanese syllabet) variations but former celebrities sometimes continue to use their stage names or use only one name — for their campaigning and image.
We can confirm this by examining public documents of the time period (early eighties) which contain the names of naturalized people; there are on-record examples of official legal non-alias naturalized Japanese with the most common Chinese and Korean family names — both during the Imperial Japan era⁑ (especially with Westerners) and during the post World War Ⅱ "Peace Constitution" law era. Thus, is provably false that the MoJ 100% categorically or systematically by policy refused to approve all applications which contained foreign appearing names.
 |
| When do ethnic Koreans decide to use Japanese names? (2000) |
Summary
It's impossible to know for sure what was said or done regarding applicants discussions about their post-naturalization names with case workers, as these discussions are private and not recorded.Additionally, you can't check the Official Gazette (å®å ±) either, as only the "before" naturalization names (in either ã㪠(Japanese syllabet) or 挢å (sinograms) are listed‡. And public records do not indicate whether a name is truly considered to be "ethnic" or "Japanese-ish" or not, nor do public records indicate whether one is naturalized or even if the name is an alias or stage name. Even politicians with very common "Japanese-ish" names can and do use stage names and aliases — usually ä»®å (Japanese syllabet) variations but former celebrities sometimes continue to use their stage names or use only one name — for their campaigning and image.
We can confirm this by examining public documents of the time period (early eighties) which contain the names of naturalized people; there are on-record examples of official legal non-alias naturalized Japanese with the most common Chinese and Korean family names — both during the Imperial Japan era⁑ (especially with Westerners) and during the post World War Ⅱ "Peace Constitution" law era. Thus, is provably false that the MoJ 100% categorically or systematically by policy refused to approve all applications which contained foreign appearing names.
Footnotes
* I wish they advised people who get kanji/hanzi/hanja tattoos.
† These days, the majority of naturalization candidates are Chinese, not Korean. This is due to the rapid decrease of åšæ¥ {"Zainichi"} (technically any foreign resident of Japan, but with the nuance of ethnic Koreans in Japan) SPRs, due to a combination of three factors:
⁑ For Imperial Japan, it's a little more complicated due to lack of equality of the sexes and the jus matrimonii (nationality acquired automatically/involuntarily via marriage); foreign women acquired Japanese family names due to marriage, but often their given names stayed in non-Japanese form — either in ã«ã¿ã«ã (Japanese syllabet for foreign words) or åœãŠå (artificially created Japanese sinogram names corresponding to foreign names)
† These days, the majority of naturalization candidates are Chinese, not Korean. This is due to the rapid decrease of åšæ¥ {"Zainichi"} (technically any foreign resident of Japan, but with the nuance of ethnic Koreans in Japan) SPRs, due to a combination of three factors:
- Intermarriage with Japanese, which means the children of these one-Japanese/one-Korean families automatically acquire Japanese citizenship at birth.
- The 1985 nationality law reform which allowed these "international" marriages to pass down Japanese citizenship from either the mother or father, effectively doubling the amount of children from these multi-national marriages inheriting Japanese nationality.
- The children/parents of these international marriages choosing to keep their Japanese nationality.
⁑ For Imperial Japan, it's a little more complicated due to lack of equality of the sexes and the jus matrimonii (nationality acquired automatically/involuntarily via marriage); foreign women acquired Japanese family names due to marriage, but often their given names stayed in non-Japanese form — either in ã«ã¿ã«ã (Japanese syllabet for foreign words) or åœãŠå (artificially created Japanese sinogram names corresponding to foreign names)
