Becoming Japanese

It's been brought to my attention that the previous post (which was originally published first on Quora, then edited and posted here ) is apparently popular enough that some kind translator, Jerome Cohen , took it upon himself to translate it into French for better availability to non-English readers. I thank him for making this popular post available to a wider audience. Please do check out his French translations of other questions about Japan and Japanese from his Quora profile as well as the Quora in French page on Facebook . Je suis en fait une personne qui a fait cela (je suis devenu légalement japonais). La réponse courte est que vous pouvez avoir le nom que vous voulez, avec quatre conditions: Il doit être écrit exclusivement en, ou une combinaison de, hiragana (moderne, pas archaïque), katakana, ou kanji. Tout comme vous ne pouvez pas écrire un nom sur des documents officiels américains en thaïlandais, cyrillique, hangul ou arabe... ou même utiliser des signes ...

You can have any name you want,  and it can be as long as you want , providing four conditions: None of these characters are allowed in a Japanese 戸籍 { koseki } (family register). It has to be written exclusively in or a combination of ( modern, not archaic ) hiragana, katakana , or kanji . Just like you can’t write a name on American official documents in Thai, Cyrillic, Hangul, or Arabic … or even use diacritic marks used in European languages ( ex. the German sharp S [“ß”] or French cedilla [ç] or others [ÂÄÅÀÁ]) — people becoming American must adapt their name to the plain 26 character alphabet — you have to adapt your name to Japan’s writing system. Because there is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence between either Japanese language "spelling" or pronunciation and other languages, most non-Japanese names will need to be adapted or modified for the new writing system. "Adrian" for example would become 「エイドリアン」 which when literally converted t...

55% of weddings in Japan are "western" style (2014) Often times, when people learn that I have Japanese nationality, they ask me, "are you married to a Japanese?" When I answer yes, they often say, "oh, that's why," perhaps concluding in their head that it was marriage that enabled me to obtain Japanese nationality. However, many are then surprised to learn that marriage neither leads to automatic conferral of nationality nor is it necessary in order to get Japanese citizenship. Many unmarried people in Japan have an easier time naturalizing than they do acquiring their so-called "permanent" resident status ( 永住者資格 { eijūsha shikaku } ) for their residency in Japan. Historically†, there have been three ways to obtain nationality "automatically", or involuntarily, in the world: by where you were born ( jus soli ; 出生地主義 { shusshōchi shugi } ) by the nationality of your parents ( jus sanguinis ; 血統主義 { kettō shugi }) by ...

Vital Records are birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates. Graduation certificates are not Vital. In order to become a national of Japan, Japan will need to create a family unit register ( 戸籍 { koseki } ) — even if you have no known family inside or outside Japan — with information regarding: your marriage(s) and possibly divorce(s) your dependents (children, including adoptions etc) your legal spouse your date of birth your parents their full names, converted to Japanese: probably カタカナ { katakana } (Japanese syllabet) but possibly 漢字 { kanji } (sinograms) depending on their nationality records their birth certificates proving their names and existence their death certificate, if applicable their marriage and or divorce certificates, if applicable their dependents (all known children) Because the Ministry of Justice needs this very official domestic proof of Japanese nationality to be as accurate as possible, they will want to see official documentatio...

Japanese & American love was very taboo around WW2 March 14th is a recognized in Japan for many reasons, the top two of which are: It is "White Day" ( ホワイトデー { howaito dē } ), a day where boys & men reciprocate for the gifts they receive from women on Valentine's Day exactly one month before. White Day was invented by Japan in 1978, and now the "tradition" has spread and some men in close Asian countries (South Korea, Taiwan, China) also follow the commercially invented custom. It is much lesser known as "International Marriage Day in Japan" ( 国際結婚の日 { kokusai kekkon no hi } ), recognizing the day that Japanese nationals were permitted by law to marry non-Japanese nationals for the very first time. This law was enacted during the Meiji Era ( 明治時代 { Meiji jidai } ): 1873 When the first marriage attempt between a national and a non-national occurred, neither the "Meiji Constitution" ( 『明治憲法』 { "Meiji Kempō" } ) no...

A person from the internet sent in this question to this site asking how a divorce from a Japanese national affects application for naturalization. It took me a while to get the answer to this question, as I have no direct experience with this. I finally managed to have a lunch with my contact at the MoJ, who gave me an easy answer. In my particular case, being married for over ten years to a Japanese reduced my "continuous residency requirement" from five years to a mere one year. Being married for this length of time also reduced the requirements, including residency (again to just one year), for permanent residency — which is not a prerequisite for Japanese naturalization. Divorce from a Japanese national does not negatively affect your chances for naturalization to Japan. It may indirectly affect your chances depending on how the divorce affects your livelihood (meaning your assets and your income), but the event taking place in your past does not affect the six ...

Today's random question discovered on the internet is: What if you're missing some of the paperwork (for example, it's impossible for you to obtain your parent's birth certificates)? Can you still naturalize to Japanese? It's handled case-by-case, country-by-country... and there are thick manuals under the desk of the case worker for the particulars for every state regarding the rules for these documents (with PRC and ROK on top of the desk, well worn). The purpose of getting this documentation is to make the new 戸籍 { koseki } (family register), which needs to be created from scratch for a naturalized citizen, as accurate and complete as possible. They are aware that it's not always possible to get this documentation, and it doesn't automatically disqualify you (although refusing to present it or not trying may not help you; naturalization is not a right) but they try really hard to get it.

One of the most arduous paperwork processes for naturalization is the collection of birth, death, divorce, adoption, and marriage certificates for your family. It's tough paperwork to get because most likely you are in Japan, and most likely that paperwork is overseas. Because that paperwork is often decades old, most family members are not in possession of it and have moved or are living in a place far away from the local government office which holds their records. This means that in addition to you needing to contact your family, your family members will probably need to apply, via mail, to retrieve copies of their records. A paper chain relay, if you will. You will also need your own birth (hopefully not death), and possibly marriage, adoption, or divorce certificates, so you can empathize with your family members' paperwork pain. Why does Japan need these certificates? All Japanese citizens either have or belong to a 戸籍 { koseki } (family register), which tracks J...