Becoming Japanese

A+! Hello again! This is the second part of my documentation of the naturalization process. If you haven't already, please read part 1 here . In the previous post, I talked about the first consultation and the homework I got from the case worker. This time, I will talk about the other preparations I did before going to the second consultation, and the second consultation itself. Thanks to the wealth of information on this blog, I already had a pretty good idea of what other documents I will need. Since there are templates for them here and elsewhere on the internet, I decided to prepare a few of them in advance. Documents I prepared in advance 親族の概要 shinzoku no gaiyō , family outline (inside and outside Japan) 履歴書 rirekisho , Personal History (parts 1 and 2) 帰化の動機書 kika no dōkisho , motivation essay for naturalization 生計の概要 seikei no gaiyō , Living Expenses Outline (parts 1 and 2) 略図 ryakuzu （ 自宅 jitaku 、 勤務先 kinmusaki ）, map of vicinity of home and employment Note: document n...

Hello everyone! In a previous blog post , I talked about my motivation for obtaining Japanese citizenship. This time, I will go into detail regarding the steps I took to apply. All of the conversations and phone calls were conducted in Japanese. In order to give this story more context, you should know a bit more about me. I am a natural-born Filipino citizen in my late 20s, single, living in Aichi Prefecture. Thus, all of the requirements, documents required will be from the point of view of a person with the above qualities.  On to the main story: In the beginning of April 2021, I looked for the 法務局 hōmukyoku (Legal Affairs Bureau) that has jurisdiction over my place of residence and that has a 国籍課 kokusekika (citizenship section), which was the Nagoya Legal Affairs Bureau . I called the number on the website, navigated through the voice prompts, and got connected to a person on the other end. I told them that I would like to apply for citizenship. They asked me: Where I live...

Do I really want to do this? Hello everyone! My name is Den (pen name for now). I come from a country in Southeast Asia, and I am the newest contributor to "Turning Japanese". I am currently in the process of applying for naturalization, and I would like to remain relatively anonymous until its conclusion. I would like to talk about one of the first steps for anyone considering naturalization: actually thinking about taking the plunge. It's one thing to go through the motions of applying, and another to first decide whether you really want to or not. And I would like to tell it to you through my own personal story. Backstory: I first came to Japan in 2011 when I was 18 years old, through a student exchange program with a Japanese university in Tokyo. Coming from a developing country, everything in Japan enamored me: how convenient it is to live in Japan, the good public transport, blazing-fast internet, nice people, delicious food, and the list goes on. Towards the end...