Becoming Japanese

Photo credit [ CC BY 2.0 ] to Hideto KOBAYASHI There's a great article in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator about the origins of the "Melon-pan" ( メロンパン { meron-pan } ), sometimes called a "Sunrise" ( サンライズ { sunraizu } ) in some parts of the nation, that is: ubiquitous in Japan found in every single convenience store, bakery, and anywhere serving edibles for a train commute in Japan. Ōkura Sagoyan Introduced to Japan during the Meiji era by a talented Armenian  baker, イワン・サゴヤン { Iwan SAGOYAN } (Hovhannes "Ivan" Ghevenian Sagoyan), who was discovered by Baron Kihachirō Ōkura ( 大倉喜八郎 { ŌKURA Kihachirō } ) while working at the New Hotel Harbin in Manchuria, China. Poached from China, the baker invented the original versions of the famous candy bread while working at the Imperial Hotel ( 帝国ホテル { Teikoku Hoteru } ), basing it on the French galette ( ガレット { garetto } ) pastry bread using Russian techniques for fusion of Vienna/German...

In an old post, I mentioned how unlike the United States, Japan has no civics test quizzing applicants about their knowledge of the constitution, the country's history, geography, or government. In fact, most people are not tested on their Japanese ability either, because if your Japanese ability is comfortable enough that the case worker does not think you are struggling to communicate, understand them, and read or write simple forms, they will skip testing to see whether or not you have rudimentary ability. But what if there was a test? What would it be like? Of course, a real test administered by the Ministry of Justice would be entirely in Japanese. But for fun, I made a make-believe test a few years ago, and it was relatively popular. The post is now old though and some of the questions are dated. Additionally, Google Forms now has the capability to make a proper test that will provide graded results after you submit your answers. I have been told that the test is not e...

When people learn I'm a Japanese national , they naturally (and correctly) first assume, from my very non-Japanese appearance and because I speak Japanese with a slight non-native accent, that I was neither born nor grew up here. South Park creators parodied the Native American / Japanese conspiracy theory in " Cannibal! The Musical " So their follow-up question and assumption is often about how or "why" I am Japanese. Laughably, I have had many people ask if I was ハーフ { hāfu } (mixed race) , even though there is absolutely no DNA affecting my phenotype that should give people that idea. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is probably more Native American than I am Asian. They ask this question because most Japanese and non-Japanese have met people who don't appear to be Japanese yet are, and the most common explanation is that their in Japanese ancestry in their lineage. There actually are Japanese people who were born in Japan, grew up complete...

It's been brought to my attention that the previous post (which was originally published first on Quora, then edited and posted here ) is apparently popular enough that some kind translator, Jerome Cohen , took it upon himself to translate it into French for better availability to non-English readers. I thank him for making this popular post available to a wider audience. Please do check out his French translations of other questions about Japan and Japanese from his Quora profile as well as the Quora in French page on Facebook . Je suis en fait une personne qui a fait cela (je suis devenu légalement japonais). La réponse courte est que vous pouvez avoir le nom que vous voulez, avec quatre conditions: Il doit être écrit exclusivement en, ou une combinaison de, hiragana (moderne, pas archaïque), katakana, ou kanji. Tout comme vous ne pouvez pas écrire un nom sur des documents officiels américains en thaïlandais, cyrillique, hangul ou arabe... ou même utiliser des signes ...

You can have any name you want,  and it can be as long as you want , providing four conditions: None of these characters are allowed in a Japanese 戸籍 { koseki } (family register). It has to be written exclusively in or a combination of ( modern, not archaic ) hiragana, katakana , or kanji . Just like you can’t write a name on American official documents in Thai, Cyrillic, Hangul, or Arabic … or even use diacritic marks used in European languages ( ex. the German sharp S [“ß”] or French cedilla [ç] or others [ÂÄÅÀÁ]) — people becoming American must adapt their name to the plain 26 character alphabet — you have to adapt your name to Japan’s writing system. Because there is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence between either Japanese language "spelling" or pronunciation and other languages, most non-Japanese names will need to be adapted or modified for the new writing system. "Adrian" for example would become 「エイドリアン」 which when literally converted t...

City Councillor elections for Tokyo were last month. A number of politicians who were originally another nationality have run for office in Japan , and quite a few get elected. We have covered other city councillors (as well as national level politicians in the House of Representatives and upper house of Japan's Diet) who were originally of another nationality but naturalized and took Japanese nationality. For this article, I'd like to feature 井上ノエミ { INOUE Noemi } , formerly a Bolivian national who has been representing Sumida City in Tokyo ( 東京都墨田区 { Tōkyō-to Sumida-ku } ) for many years now. She was re-elected to a second term last month. I should note that Ms. Inoue shares the same family name (Inoue) as I do, and also writes her given name in カタカナ { katakana } (Japanese block-style syllabet). Of course, there's no relation: "Inoue" has been a very common name throughout Japanese history — it is sometimes spelled "Inouye" overseas due to ...

It's not uncommon for political posters of Japanese candidates to use nicknames or kana to help voters remember them. プラニク・ヨゲンドラ { PURANIKU · Yogendora } (पुराणिक योगेंद्र / Nickname in Japanese: よぎ { Yogi } ) was born in western India in 1977. He is the eldest son of three brothers. His father works at a factory and his mother is a seamstress. After graduating in India, he continued his education and earned a master's degree in international economy and international management. At the same time, he holds degrees in IT (computer development) and the Japanese language. He first visited Japan as a student in 1997 and 1999, funded by the government. After college, he was given a job offer from a US company, but he chose to work in IT in Japan in 2001. He got married that year, and had his first child the year after that. His wife teaches at an overseas university, so he raises his son alone in Japan. Because of this, he became acutely aware of the challenges and diff...

A received a question a while back from a potential naturalization applicant who asked me if it was possible to use a Legal Affairs Bureau for his naturalization application that is not the bureau which would be closest to either his home or work. This person, whose first language was French, told me he had a bad experience with interviewing in Tokyo because the case worker felt that his Japanese language ability was not good enough to meet the requirements for naturalization. For those that don't know, there is no actual clause about Japanese language ability in the requirements for naturalization. However, having "abilities" and skills that are deemed useful and relevant enough to support a modest, stable, lifestyle financially is  a requirement. Thus, for that requirement, they are looking at a variety of factors: Your formal education level (college) Your career related certifications in addition to one's diplomas Your employment / income stability and pa...

Donald L . Keene passed away due to heart failure in a Japanese hospital at the age of 96 on February 24th, 2019 at 6:21am in a hospital near where he lived in 東京都台東区 { Tōkyō-to Taitō-ku } (Taito City, Tokyo). This site has followed Donald Keene's path to naturalization only, as covering his entire contributions to Japan would be too difficult and too long for a site like this. On a personal note, I should add that I had the opportunity to communicate with Donald Keene for a bit related to this site. This site has had over fifteen direct contributors (who have written directly for it in some way or form), and over two dozen contributors who have contributed documents and resources behind the scenes. All of these contributors were naturalized Japanese. And Donald Keene was among them. When the site first hit one million visitors about a half decade ago, I hosted a party for all the naturalized Japanese in Japan who had contributed to the site. We rented out the big party r...

Yokohama DeNA Baystars coach "Alex Ramírez" ( アレックス Arekkusu ・ ラミレス RAMIRESU ), born Alexander Ramón Ramírez Quiñónez — and transcribed into Japanese in the Japanese government naturalization notices 官報 { kampō } (Official Gazette) as ラミレス RAMIRESU ・ カプリレス Kapuriresu ・ アレキサンダー Arekisandā ・ ラモン Ramon — but known by his Japanese nickname of ラミちゃん { Rami-chan } to his fans, officially became a Japanese national on January 23rd, 2019 at the age of 44. Ramírez started in the American minors (earning a player of the year award), then progressing to the MLB 's Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates before going to the Tokyo's Yakult Swallows then the Yomiuri Giants , where he became the first player to get 2,000 career hits in 2013. This led him to being the first and only foreign player to be invited to the 日本プロ野球名球会 { Nippon Puro meiyakyū-kai } (Golden Players Club) , one of the two hall of fame organizations for Japanese baseball. Having played fo...