Becoming Japanese

(Most graphs in this post are redrawn to reflect absolute numbers instead of percentages) Last year, I encouraged people who were native English speakers in living in Japan, regardless of whether they were naturalized Japanese citizens or not, to participate in a short 26 question survey run by Victoria Ferauge, an American academic expat (and political advocate relating to various nationality issues) who has lived in various parts of the world including Osaka and Versailles, France. Over six hundred (615) valid participants were tabulated from June to August of 2016, and the results were published for the University of Kent on March 24th, 2017 as part of a master's dissertation. I received permission to republish the raw data and add my interpretation here. Of the questions, the first two questions: Do you live in Japan? Are you a native speaker of English? … determined whether or not the remaining 24 questions, listed below, would apply. Disclaimer : while the ...

Colombia is the only South American country that has a coast on the Pacific Ocean & Caribbean Sea Hi, my name is ロドリゲス オスカル { RODORIGESU Osukaru } , a Colombian-born, Japanese national. As you can probably infer from my name, I have no Japanese, or any kind of Asian ancestry. Prior to arriving in Japan on 2008, I had no particular connections to Japan, yet here I am, as a naturalized Japanese national. I left Colombia on some pretty good terms. Without being particularly wealthy, I was a 20-something professional working in IT in Colombia when I decided to come to Japan as a graduate student. I still am in very good terms with my family and friends back there, and I visit about once every two years-ish as budget allows. ( ｲﾒｰｼﾞ { imēji } : not actually the author of this post) Unlike many people who naturalize, I didn't have permanent residence when I applied; I had been on a renewable 技術 { gijutsu } or "Engineer" status of residence, working for ...