Comparing Japan's renunciation numbers to other countries

South Korea is so high it needs a separate scale: see yellow / right side

I met a gentleman who was referred to me a few days ago by a friend. While I get this a lot from those who are interested in naturalization, his situation was a first for me: he was a native Japanese who had naturalized to United States citizenship. In doing so, he renounced his Japanese citizenship. However, life circumstances (returning back to Japan and he doesn't wish to be hooked into two tax systems) meant he now wishes to re-acquire Japanese nationality and relinquish his U.S. nationality along with his Japanese national wife's U.S. LPR status. This means he will have relinquished/renounced two nationalities in his lifetime. That's very unusual, but it made me wonder: but how often do people give up their other nationalities?

The general answer is: with the exception of South Korea, not very often. Even the highest number of renunciations (excluding the ROK, this would be the USA) matched with the countries with the lowest population (the city-state of Singapore), the percentage of people that give up their nationality per 100,000 people is measured in tiny fractions of a percent.

Explaining These Numbers

It should be noted that the above graph is obviously not a pure apples-to-apples comparison. I considered doing a graph which was proportional to the population of overseas expats per country (as opposed to the general population overall, as most countries only allow you to give up your nationality if you are already living overseas via an embassy), but decided against it as many countries (such as the United States) can't publish accurate numbers regarding how many of its citizens live overseas.


In some cases (such as Singapore), government statistical data was not easily available. In these cases, data is reported third-hand from print or digital media.

The United States

The amount of Americans that perform a pure renunciation (that is, they are not doing a relinquishment which usually means they are switching their citizenship to that of another country) are quite low. America is one of the very few countries that will allow its citizens to become stateless. Some relatively famous stateless former Americans are:

• Mike Gulgoski
• Thomas Glenn Jolley †
• Jerry "Joel" L. Slater Jr.

† While military conscription still exists in the United States, called the Selective Service System (SSS) — where in theory all males from ages 18 to 26 must be registered and could be called up in the time of war — it hasn't been used since the Vietnam War. The United States used all-volunteer and professional soldiers for the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Wars.

Going stateless, even among the Americans that choose to expatriate from their American citizenship, is rare (because it's considered to be a bad idea). Because of the unusual nature of the procedure, the U.S. State Department now charges $2,350 for renouncing. Relinquishing your American citizenship, however, is still free.

Part of the profile settings for 楽天銀行／イーバンク {Rakuten Ginkō / Ī-banku} (Rakuten Bank / e-Bank)

The spike in overseas Americans giving up their U.S. citizenship due to the FBAR requirements and FATCA enforcement is real. Even in Japan, when you open a new bank account, many banks ask you (or find out on their own) if you are a U.S. national in order to be compliant.

As you can see from the chart above, compiled from 877A Individual Expatriation published in the U.S. Federal Register (The Daily Journal of the U.S. Government)'s Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen to Expatriate, the number starts spiking around the time the enforcement (by asking non-American banks to "out" their expat account holders) began being implemented.

While their are few ex-Americans that will tell you they miss filing IRS 1040 tax forms annually, the primary motivator for most people for losing their American nationality is permanent family ties and roots in another country (often a country that does not permit multiple citizenship).

Japan

Japan's numbers have started to rise recently, though not by much. Nobody knows for sure why, but there are three events which may explain the recent rise:

1. The change in the nationality law in 1985 meant that naturally born dual national Japanese adults (20 years old) have two years (until they are 22) to decide which nationality they want. 1985 + 22 = 2007. Prior to 2007, there was no need for anybody to do the 国籍選択届 {kokuseki sentaku todoke} (Choice of Nationality Form) procedure.
2. Japan has been slowly converting its 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) system from analog, non-integrated B4 paper to being digital and interconnected, enabling the easier detection and correction of irregularities; this is primarily to cut down on pension and welfare fraud.
3. According to MoFA (外務省 {gaimushō}), more and more Japanese live overseas, and the numbers who are classified as "permanent" foreign residents are rising. As permanent residency is often a requirement for naturalization in many countries such as America (but not Japan), these people are more likely to naturalize. And Japanese that follow the law and procedures and report the acquisition of foreign nationality are more likely to lose such their Japanese nationality — especially if the country they naturalize to, like Japan, requires them to give up their previous nationalities.

Source: Annual Report of Statistics on Japanese Nationals Overseas

South Korea

The Republic of Korea's nationality renunciation numbers are so high that I had to create a separate scale for them on the right side of the graph above; if I didn't, the other countries would all be squashed at the bottom and comparing would be difficult. They are the only advanced developed country in the world with numbers this high; their loss of nationality numbers exceed their naturalization numbers.

relinquishment = 국적 상실 {gugjeog sangsil}, renunciation = 국적 이탈 {gugjeog ital}

There are two big reasons for these numbers:

1. Conscription. With some exceptions (such as those who naturalize), South Korea conscripts its 18 to 35 years old males for military service that can last up to two (2) years for active duty and three (3) years for non-active duty.
2. Japanese naturalization. Ethnic Koreans who were born and raised in Japan (colloquially called 『在日』 {Zainichi} — which actually literally means "in Japan"), have been naturalizing in numbers approaching five digits (almost 10,000 people) per year. As South Korea did not permit dual nationality for those who voluntarily chose another nationality, a gain of a citizen for Japan meant a loss of a Korean national.

In order to stem this loss, South Korea loosened its laws in 2010 regarding single nationality and allows some exceptional people, in some cases, to have multiple citizenship. Nevertheless, loss of citizenship is still relatively high compared to other countries.

Hong Kong

There was a huge peak of renunciations of citizenship during the final years of Hong Kong being a British colony just prior to democratic Hong Kong becoming part of the Communist People's Republic of China. Although the PRC promised that it would follow a "one country, two system" policy and would relax the assimilation, from the government's perspective, of Hong Kong (indicated by its special designation: SAR), there were still enough people worried by the communist government's intentions — catalyzed by the Tiananmen Square Massacre (六四天安門事件64 Ten'ammon jiken) — that declarations of nationality loss were high for a few years prior to the transfer of sovereignty.

The trend is that emigration was high before The Handover

With or without obtaining foreign citizenship, almost 1% of Hong Kong's entire population emigrated in 1990. After "the handover", many returned back to the city-state, some of them with a different (or additional) nationality.

June 5, 1989: Beijing

United Kingdom

Similar to New Zealand, the United Kingdom has no restrictions on obtaining additional nationalities, so people are not giving up UK nationality for the sake of acquiring an additional nationality unless they are giving it up for the purpose of acquiring another nationality which requires applicants to give up their other nationalities.

The United Kingdom renunciation process has an interesting safety procedure that prevents someone from becoming stateless: if you renounce while in the process of applying for another country's nationality, but you are unsuccessful or abort the process before acquiring, your British nationality automatically restores itself in six (6) months.

Like most countries that follow United Nations principles, the United Kingdom will not let its people become stateless.

Simultaneously holding HK SAR+UK BN(O) passports

Unlike Japan, and similar to the United States (citizen vs. national) and Taiwan, the United Kingdom has different types of nationality:

• British citizenship
• British overseas territories citizenship
• British overseas citizenship
• British subject status
• British national (overseas) status

After 1983, due to changes in the law, British citizenship is now the most common. The statistics we have for British renunciations do not specify what type of nationality the British person had when renouncing, which probably makes a big difference regarding one's connection to the homeland. Like Taiwan, not all of the above nationalities give one the right to adobe or work in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.

Renouncing British nationality costs £144 in 2015, unless you are renouncing British national (overseas) status, in which case it is free.

New Zealand

Proposed new flag to distance from AU & UK's

New Zealand was included as a comparison because it allows multiple nationalities and it does not have military conscription nor tax obligations for overseas citizens. It is also an advanced, developed country that is a member of the OECD and a democracy that recognizes most human rights. Additionally, politically New Zealand is a peaceful country, and its international behavior is not such that its citizens are motivated to give up their nationality as a protest against foreign policy.

The peak of NZ renunciations happened in 1998, with two dozen (24) renunciations that year. It's never been that high since.

The best explanation that one can come up with for even the handful of renunciations of citizenship is that these couple dozen or so are renouncing because it is a requirement for naturalization to another country, and the naturalization is motivated by something other than dissatisfaction with the Realm of New Zealand.

Taiwan (the Republic of China)

The blank ①s areas signify
無戶籍國民 {wú-hùjí guómín} (NWOHR).

Due to the nature of Taiwan's state of international recognition (the United States calls its representation there the AIT and not an "Embassy" or "Consulate") and its historical disputes regarding sovereignty with the communist government on mainland China, Taiwan has some unique policies regarding nationality and identity. For example, it's possible to be an "overseas Chinese" and acquire a passport for the Republic of China without actually having voting or residence rights on Taiwanese territory.

Taiwan doesn't allow those who acquire their nationality (via naturalization) to keep their existing nationalities. It does allow natural-born nationals to acquire additional nationalities out of pragmatism due to Taiwan's (lack of) status in the United Nations.

Although attempting to renounce citizenship in order to avoid conscription is illegal, Taiwan has reduced the conscription duties of citizens so that even though it's still mandatory, the obligations are now minimal: by 2016, eighteen (18) to 22 year old males will just need three (3) to four (4) months of training & service to fulfill their duty to their country.

Singapore

Stricter than Taiwan, Singapore does not allow voluntary multiple citizenship nor does it allow one to renounce Singaporean citizenship to (legally) get out of mandatory military service. Avoiding "National Service" (NS) can result in imprisonment if caught.

Having SG+OCI simultaneously is possible.

Nevertheless, on average a little over a thousand (1,000) people have been renouncing Singaporean citizenship per year since the start of the millennium, peaking with about 1,200 for five (5) years since 2007.

India

The Republic of India does not publish renunciation numbers, however anecdotal evidence suggests that the number may be high: 1.2 million people applied for Overseas Citizen of India status in 2013. Indian OCI (as well as the now deprecated PIO status) status is similar to the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and other countries that have "classes" of nationality, except OCI is pretty liberal in that it gives one a lifetime right to enter, live, work, and own property in India. It does not give you the right to vote or hold a public position, however.

While their are many ways to obtain OCI status, including inheriting the national/citizen status (not "blood"), similar to jus sanguinis, from your parents, spouse, grand parents, or even great grandparents. Those relatives don't need to have Indian citizenship either; they may be OCI holders.

However, an OCI "Card" (similar in form to a passport) can also be obtained by Indians who have renounced their Indian citizenship. This is a clever way to allow Indians to change to a "Passport of Convenience", even if that country does not recognize multiple nationalities, while retaining economic ties to their homeland, and helping hyphenated citizens and parents deal with their own or their children's identity issues by giving them a passport-like document that strengthens via official recognition by the State that they are "Indian".

A popular reason for overseas Indian travelers (and Chinese) to change their nationality is to have a passport which allows travel to more countries.

Places a Indian passport can go without needing a pre-accepted paper visa