Becoming Japanese

An (emotional) approximation of how much documents I gathered Hello everyone. This is the part 3 of my naturalization story. Part 1 and Part 2 linked. At this point, I have prepared all the documents I possibly could. There are no more documents I can prepare in advance. So we are going straight to the third and last consultation. Don't worry, I will explain the asterisk (*) in the title later. Also, I will try a different writing style this time, with mini-chapter markers throughout the text. Third Consultation One rainy afternoon in July, I made my way to the Legal Affairs Bureau. By now I am familiar with the commute. I went to the reception desk, filled up the consultation form, and went to the waiting room. This time, a different but similarly middle aged man, called me in to the consultation room. I pulled out my file folder and gave him the complete set of documents. He checked them one by one, also taking note of the remarks written on the A3-sized requirements list re...

Actually, a passport is not proof of nationality. A Japanese family registry is, however. This question was actually posted in the Reddit group "Residents in Japan" , and I answered it there, but unfortunately the moderators removed the good question (in my opinion) due to their strict rule of requiring its participants to actually reside in Japan. Thus, I will re-post my answer here: The worst case "penalty" for not properly getting rid your original nationality or re-acquiring or re-instating your old one or getting new ones is that they can unilaterally annul ("cancel") your Japanese citizenship on the grounds that you did not properly complete all the mandatory required steps to obtain it as prescribed by the nationality law . This procedure is called "administrative denaturalization": the loss of citizenship by an annulment of naturalization without the government needing to sue them in a court, also known as "adminis...

The official poster for the film What makes a Japanese person Japanese? Is it the blood that runs through their veins? A parent they were born to? The country they grew up in? Is it how they look? How they act? How they speak? Their citizenship? A few years ago I was interviewed at my home by a professional videographer who publishes popular streaming videos to the YouTube site, "Life Where I'm From". Apparently, this topic was of great interest to Greg Lam … not necessarily just because of me or the fact that he lived in Japan, but more likely also because like me, his immediate family has many people who are legally, culturally, and/or genetically Japanese in one or more ways. He has produced and directed a full length feature film (almost 2 hours) which explores the many facets of "Being Japanese": not just the "legal" aspect (which is what this site focuses...