Becoming Japanese

Nick Zappetti, American "mafia boss of Tokyo" A few years ago, I reviewed the excellent book "Tokyo Underworld" by Robert Whiting , which featured an Italian-American by the name of Nicholas aka Nick Zappetti who immigrated to Japan after The War and became a bit of a minor kingpin in the legitimate (and illegitimate) recovering economy of the State of Japan during the "anything goes" days of the black markets. One of his big contributions to the post-war creature comforts of Tokyo, especially if you were a soldier (or spy) stationed in Japan, was his American-style Italian restaurants that featured American style pizza (contrary to what Americans believe, the common U.S. versions of pizza is no more authentic than Japanese style pizza ). I featured the book on this site because Zappetti was one of the early pioneer Americans who would naturalize to Japanese, becoming 小泉二コラ { KOIZUMI Nikora } . While he was definitely not the first to do so — not just As...

This little guy completely changed the notion regarding international freedom of movement In early interviews with people done many years ago , people would often ask me, "Why did you naturalize? Why not just have Permanent Residency?" People expected me to answer with things like "so I could vote" or "so I could run for office" . When I actually answered, "so I have the right to live here," they would follow-up with: "but doesn't permanent residency give you that?" I would reply, "No, Japanese permanent residency gives you permission to be in Japan. With Japanese nationality, you have the right to be in Japan." I would then talk about how that in theory, there is nothing "permanent" about "permanent" residency — it is simply an idiomatic expression meaning you no longer had to qualify or keep renewing your SoR (status of residence {as a non-Japanese}). Many ...

This old description implies that the paperwork and form inspection and reception always occurs before the interview (and request for additional paperwork) A person who is currently undergoing the naturalization process asked me if the order of the steps is the same for everybody, and if it is different then does that mean a problem or rather a fast track to naturalization. Over the years, I have had many people report to me that some of the steps they took for naturalization were done in a different order from how I did them or how others who have written for this site did them. For example: Signed one or more of the oaths at the very first  or second appointment Did the interviews after all the paperwork was completed, or before all the paperwork was completed Had additional paperwork to complete far after they thought all of the paperwork had been turned in There are a few things which will always proceed in a certain order. For example, they will always talk abo...

A few months ago an American interested in becoming Japanese mentioned to me that he looked forward to not needing to repay his crushing student debt he left back in America. The United States has gone through an unfortunate bubble of costs for real estate in tech areas (ex. Silicon Valley), healthcare, and education, have seen its costs escalate wildly out of control over the past few decades. Most people attempt to solve the education cost dilemma by taking on student loans, which is a special type of loan that you must eventually pay back — you cannot escape the debt by declaring personal bankruptcy. This seemingly inescapable debt, compared with the changing nature of the workforce where people who choose non- STEM  employment find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet compared to past generations, has led some to consider desperate measures. Some have proposed intentionally forcing the government's hand by collectively not paying student debt en masse — suc...