The Naturalisation Interview

The Application Paperwork, in multiple copies.
Each envelope is one full set.

From 2014 to 2016, when I went through the process of naturalisation, I wrote a whole series of articles about it on my blog. One of those articles was an account of my naturalisation interview, in March 2015, which I wrote on the evening of the interview. Everyone's interview is different (if you are single, for example, your spouse won't be involved), but people nervously waiting for their interview may be interested to see what it was like for me, so I am reposting the account here.

I went to the 法務局{Hōmukyoku} (Legal Affairs Office) in Kawasaki, and my wife, Yuriko, met me there (we were both going from work). I arrived a bit early, but my case worker soon came to speak to me. First, she took all my application documents off me, and took them into the Nationality Consultation Room to look through them. That took her about twenty minutes, while I waited. Yuriko arrived just after she had finished checking, and she said that she would speak to me first. (As has been mentioned before, they speak to the husband and wife separately, to make sure the marriage is genuine.)

The first thing she asked me was whether I was happy to give up my UK citizenship. I said I'd prefer not to, but that I understood it was necessary, so I would. We also discussed the absence of a certificate of citizenship, but as the UK will no longer issue those, it wasn't an immediate problem. The Justice Ministry may ask about it later. Next, there was a short list of extra documents she wanted. I need my 2013 tax return as well as the 2014 one, and the proof of Yuriko's income, and a couple more documents about my family for the family record. When I submit these, I only need to submit one copy, and photocopies are fine for most of them. (The proof of Yuriko's income needs to be the original.)

Then she started going through the documents. There was a short discussion to confirm the katakana spelling of my parents' names on my family record, if I am allowed to naturalise, and the way that my previous name will be written. She wanted to confirm the county I was born in, and I got a bit stuck, because it's Greater Manchester now, but I was pretty sure it wasn't when I was born. (Wikipedia confirms that I was right; I was born in Cheshire.) She is going to look into that for me, because it needs to be right according to the Japanese government, which may not be exactly the same as what the UK government thinks. Then she asked who was going to be the first name on the family record. That was something I hadn't realised. Apparently, I can choose to be added to Yuriko's current family record, or to create a new family record, with me at the top, and have Yuriko and Mayuki (our daughter) added to that. As I didn't know about this complication, I hadn't talked about it with Yuriko, so we postponed a decision on that. She wanted to know which school Mayuki was going to, and was a bit surprised that she wasn't going to an International School, until I told her how high the fees were. She asked what language I spoke to Mayuki in, and I explained that I talk to her in English and she replies in Japanese.

There weren't many questions about most of the documents, just confirmation that I don't have a driver's licence, and a few other minor points. Most of her questions were based on my CV, which is fair enough. She asked me about the background, and for some more details. For example, she wanted to know how I became a member of the Foreign Residents' Assembly, so I told her that it was openly advertised. (She doesn't work for the city, so she is allowed to not know about it.) She also asked a bit about my jobs, and, of course, about how and when I met Yuriko, and the process leading up to our marriage, and she wanted to know whether we had had a wedding ceremony, and where. (If you are marrying a Japanese citizen and think you might want to naturalise later, have a ceremony. It helps make the wedding look real.)

My interview took about 45 minutes, and then I came out while Yuriko went in. Her interview took about 20 minutes, and I asked her about it afterwards. She said it was more like a friendly chat, and that, while they did talk about where we met, and our wedding ceremony, and how Yuriko's parents felt about our marriage, they also talked about Mayuki and I speaking a mix of Japanese and English, and about the choice of characters for my name. Yuriko mentioned that Mayuki was strongly opposed to a kanji surname, and the case officer agreed. She said Mayuki was really cute, and the current balance of her name suited her. My case officer once again wondered why I would want to take Japanese citizenship. I should emphasise that this wasn't in any way a hostile "Why do you think you can become Japanese?" attitude, but rather "Why would you want to become Japanese?". I think the Japanese still have a bit of an inferiority complex.

Now, I think that one reason for Yuriko's relaxed interview was that there is nothing suspicious-looking about our marriage. One of the big documentary things is that we are joint owners of our flat. But I suspect that another reason is that this is actually an effective way to catch false marriages. By picking up on things that were mentioned in passing, it is easy to spot people who haven't very carefully prepared their stories.

In any case, after Yuriko's interview, the case worker was ready to accept the application, so I was called back into the room, and I sat down at the table.

I signed my oath to respect the constitution, and signed my application forms. She accepted them. The interview was over.