Are smaller Bureaus more lenient or nicer than others regarding Japanese ability?

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 pattern (regular employee vs contract, temp, or freelance; size of stability of your provider [be it a company or a spouse])
• ... and your Japanese level

Because 99% of Japan speaks, reads, and writes Japanese, and over 95% of the employers in Japan need its employees to use Japanese, a minimal level of Japanese is needed to prove that if you were in a pinch, you would be able to seek employment at a place that did not cater to English or other foreign language workers (for example, a foreign IT company or English school).

For Japanese ability, nobody is expecting an applicants ability to be even close to native. However, I have heard of more than one candidate who was rejected because they had difficulty completely relatively simple forms and talking about themselves in complete sentences.

I have heard that as the younger generation increasingly relies on computers to assist them in understanding and writing Japanese, they are having more and more difficulty communicating with real live Japanese in face-to-face, unplanned encounters  (speaking slurred Japanese while inebriated after-hours at a watering hole does not count). Such as the long and numerous interview with case workers, as is needed for naturalization.

This applicant reasoned that because Tokyo's legal affairs bureau is the busiest in the country, they are less patient with those may struggle with the language.

It's hard for me to answer this question because frankly, the phenomenon of candidates wanting to naturalize with borderline credentials is a relatively new one to me; when I first naturalized in 2010, all the applicants I knew of lived in Japan prior to the computer age had deep resumes and resources and impressive Japanese skills (many were interpreters or translators). Because they learned Japanese before the advent of the internet, their Japanese was well rounded: they could write it (by hand, with a pen or pencil) and they could speak it because they couldn't rely on non-personal e-commerce for communication or the web for English entertainment.

Thus the following is an opinion.

The patience and friendliness of a bureau I believe depends more on the individual case worker than the office in general. While a smaller office may give you more "personalized" service because they have a lighter load, that "personalized" service may mean that they have time to probe into your Japanese ability more than a very busy bureau like in Tokyo.

I have heard of cases where smaller bureaus have rejected candidates. For example, I know of a British candidate who attempted to apply in Sendai who was rejected because he needed his smartphone to write (recall the kanji)  of his home address and the names of family members.

On the other hand, I have met people who have passed in Tokyo whose Japanese ability would be (in their own evaluation) ranked as "borderline".

What is not an opinion:

Part of the naturalization process is documenting your entire life, including your home and work addresses. If you apply to naturalize at a bureau that is not the most convenient to your home, they will definitely notice and most likely ask you why.

When they evaluate candidates, they do ask and look into whether a candidate has applied (and either dropped out or not passed) before. Not passing does not disqualify one for life, but they most likely will review the points of concern from prior applications. Of course, if you drop out before providing a name or anything written down, then this is not a problem.