Becoming Japanese

Your domicile can be anywhere in Japan Part of the application form ( 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinseisho } ) for applying for Japanese naturalization requires you to choose your "Registered Domicile" (what it's translated as on Japanese Passports). It's very similar to choosing one's new name as a Japanese. Unlike most natural born Japanese, who have their name and domicile chosen for them by their parents, naturalized Japanese get to choose it themselves. Like names, there are guidelines as to what is a good choice and what isn't, and naturalized Japanese follow the same rules that natural born Japanese follow. Like family names in Japan, your spouse and dependents must all have the same one. Your choice affects your driver's license (inside the IC chip), your family register ( 戸籍 { koseki } ), and your Japanese passport ( パスポート { pasupōto } ／ 旅券 { ryoken } ). Legally, the choice you make affects your day to day life much less than your choi...

Highest rank on Japan Charts: #2 Chris Hart ( クリス・ハート { Kurisu · HĀTO } ) , currently 30 years old and an American citizen, has been an hit J-Pop solo artist and musician in Japan since 2013, though his connections to Japan run far deeper than just that. Last month, on his official blog, he announced that he had begun the process for naturalization , which the entertainment media in Japan broadly reported on enthusiastically. Once one's application has been accepted, his chances of being accepted are greater than 99% , there's a very good chance this American will be an official Japanese national probably by the end of 2015. He has not mentioned what he will choose as his official name on his Japanese national family register ( 戸籍 { koseki } ) or where he will choose his Registered Domicile ( 本籍 { honseki } ), however most (but not all) celebrities that became famous on their original names tend to keep the form of their name that they became known as. If he does chan...

After your naturalization is approved what happens to your ethnic or racial affiliations? As the Ministry of Justice accurately points out, Japan does not account for its citizens ethnic or racial background. If you have ever completed a census form here you would have noticed that the only distinction made is between Japanese and non-Japanese nationality. This means that if you naturalize there will be no official listing of your ethnic background. This is also the case on other official documents such as the family register. People from places such as the United States might find it odd that an item such as race does not even appear on your driver's license. This is not to say that if you do not look typically Japanese you will not have any problems with forms of prejudice. If you fall into this category you will more than likely encounter some issue or another. Despite this, the fact is that legally Japan does not make these distinctions. Therefore, in the most important s...

Japan and the U.S. have no exact equivalent Part of the steps involving collecting all the paperwork for one's naturalization application to Japan involves getting "proof" of your current nationalities. You would think that this would be as simple as presenting your current, valid, passports . The problem is mainly this: a passport does indeed indicate what country (one of them, at least) you were a national of, that information was true only at the time of the application for the passport. Passports often last at least five years (such as the Japanese "blue" passport), and more often, ten (10) years (such as the Japanese "red" passport) . It's very possible that one could have lost that citizenship from the time the passport was issued. And while if you lose one's nationality/citizenship countries almost always cancel the passport — sometimes this is only done digitally in databases if the country cannot get access to the actual passpo...