Is it possible to avoid paying student debt by becoming legally Japanese ?
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 — such as "The Debt Collective" movement, which spun off from "Occupy Wall Street", which suggest actions such as mass debt strikes.
The United States (as well as most other countries in the world), as part of its nationality relinquishment procedure, warns that changing one's nationality does not forgive anyone of either debt or crime.
So, can you escape U.S. Student Debt by Staying in Japan forever as being Japanese?
There are social media groups discussing this:- Facebook: Student Loan Justice
- How to Get Out of Paying Your Student Loans — by Leaving the Country
- Reddit /r/legaladvice: My brother fled the country to avoid student loans. 9 years ago. Is it all fine now? (New York/ USA)
Yet, some Americans have postulated that:
- Not paying debt is not a felony (not doing your taxes, regardless of where you live in the world as a U.S. citizen, is however)
- Even though the U.S. is one of only two countries Japan has an extradition treaty with, and this extradition treaty makes it much easier to extradite Americans for financial crimes, Japan, like most countries, does not extradite its own citizens.
- So, if you wanted to escape U.S. debt (either student or other types), you could just go to Japan, change your citizenship to Japanese, and stay there forever!
While I do not know of anybody who has actually changed to Japanese nationality to escape student or other forms of debt, there have been documented people who have "fled" to Japan as a non-Japanese foreign resident to escape U.S. student debt. CNBC documented the case of Katrina Williams in an article from 2019 titled, "These Americans fled the country to escape their giant student debt":
Williams had a friend who had moved to Japan, and the idea of leaving the United States grew on her. In 2015, she moved to Chiba, also to teach English to students. “I love my work,” she said. Her job sponsors her visa.
She has her own apartment now and doesn’t have to work seven days a week anymore. Yet Williams misses her relationships back home; she hasn’t been able to make many friends in Japan.
She thinks about returning to the U.S., but knows she will be welcomed back by wage garnishments and endless calls from collection agencies. Her student debt has ballooned to well over $100,000.
“I wish I could come back to America and not be scared,” she said.
The Condition that Prevents you from Naturalizing to Japanese to Escape Debt
In order to become legally Japanese, you must meet six (6) requirements, and arguably the most important one is the financial requirement:自己又は生計を一にする配偶者その他の家族の資産又は技能によって生計を営むことができること。
(Being able to make a living through his/her own assets or abilities, or through those of a spouse or of another relative who is making a living)
When they determine this, they will examine both your assets as well as your debts — both domestic and foreign, and you will need to provide detailed financial statements and proof of your financial status.
Thus, if your debt load is too high, you may be judged as being at risk of becoming a welfare case and a burden to Japan rather than a contributor to society.
Of course, the more assets and income you have, the less of a problem it is to carry debt. But if your income and assets are high, then one could argue why are you carrying unnecessary debt and paying unnecessary interest.
There is only one type of non-Japanese which is exempt from the naturalization requirement of needing to prove they are able to earn a living on their own: the 特別永住者 (SPR: usually Chinese or Korean who have generationally been living in Japan since the time of the Empire).
So sorry, student loan holders: turning Japanese is not a way out.
