Becoming Japanese

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 was an unplanned impromptu Hangout on Air discussion where I joined the weekly program " 2½ Oyajis ", run by  +Hiko Saemon  and  +Victor Boggio  . The conversation was originally supposed to be about Deputy Prime Minister 麻生 太郎 { TARŌ Asō } 's controversial comments about "quietly revising the Japan Constitution" , but some people weren't prepared, so we talk about living in Japan issues instead. Issues covered: Immigration Policy in Japan Assimilation in Japan by immigrants Whether there is a " Japanese citizenship test " as part of naturalizing Urban myths regarding the naturalization procedure coming to your home and seeing if you're "assimilated" or not Japanese-Fillipinos seeking citizenship ... and lots of other (mostly silly) stuff +Victor Boggio  announced that he will soon be doing his own personal info on permanent residency versus naturalization on his YouTube channel , and he will be using...

+Hiko Saemon and +Victor Boggio interview me on YouTube Live (Google+ Hangouts), talking about naturalization and this blog site. It's a little personal, and a little silly, but they did a great job introducing their viewers to this blog and becoming legally Japanese. Anyway, this is something different for this site. Don't take it too seriously. For those from Google+ or Youtube: if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. (not the best screen-cap of me. I think they went a little overboard with the flags)