Does the Minister of Justice actually approve applications for naturalization?

経済産業省印と公正取引委員会印
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry seal &
the Fair Trade Commission Seal
The nationality law for Japan says that all applications must be approved by the Minister of Justice (法務大臣 {hōmu daijin}). And indeed, when you are approved, your documents are returned with an enormous seal from that Minister, serving effectively as a signature in official Japanese legal documents. In Japan and other Asian countries that use this system, the bigger the seal, the more important the person or entity is. A personal seal (印鑑 {inkan}) is usually about 1cm in diameter. The seals for companies are usually square and about 3cm wide and high. The seals for important public officials, such as Ministers and members of the Cabinet are the largest. Only the Emperor's seal (seen on the last page of the Japanese Constitution) is larger.

While it's neat to think that the current Minister of Justice has taken his or her time away from important legal matters affecting the future of the entire country to read your motivational essay about how you want to be a Japanese citizen, the reality is the actual minister is most likely far too busy to individually go through the over 10,000 applications per year and personally affix their seal of approval on each and every one of them. Not every the deputy minister has time for that.

The Ministry of Justice in Japan, which the Minister is at the top of, is a huge bureaucracy that has about 55,000 people, 5 levels of organization, 6 bureaus, and at least 28 subdivisions. Naturalization applications are definitely screened, reviewed, and approved by the Ministry, but the actual Minister delegates their responsibility to the agencies below them.

However, even though a random anonymous bureaucrat has probably reviewed and approved your application, you still get the giant official seal of the Minister on your returned application, because the Nationality Law of Japan does say that the approval is the Minister's responsibility.

Location: 日本、〒100-0013 東京都千代田区霞が関１丁目１−１

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