Becoming Japanese

A few months ago an American interested in becoming Japanese mentioned to me that he looked forward to not needing to repay his crushing student debt he left back in America. The United States has gone through an unfortunate bubble of costs for real estate in tech areas (ex. Silicon Valley), healthcare, and education, have seen its costs escalate wildly out of control over the past few decades. Most people attempt to solve the education cost dilemma by taking on student loans, which is a special type of loan that you must eventually pay back — you cannot escape the debt by declaring personal bankruptcy. This seemingly inescapable debt, compared with the changing nature of the workforce where people who choose non- STEM  employment find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet compared to past generations, has led some to consider desperate measures. Some have proposed intentionally forcing the government's hand by collectively not paying student debt en masse — suc...

Contrary to popular belief, the "Y" on these license plates doesn't mean "Yankee". ☺ The United States and Japan, like many other countries, have a special treaty called the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan" ( 日本国と { Nipponkoku to } ​ アメリカ合衆国との間の { Amerikagasshūkoku to no Aida no } ​相互協力及び { Sōgo Kyōryoku oyobi } ​安全保障条約 { Anzen Hoshō Jōyaku } ) , known as the 安保条約 { anpo jōyaku } or even just 安保 { anpo } for short. It's a long and complicated (and controversial) treaty that has been in place and renewed since 1960. Part of the provisions of the treaty allow for the U.S. military to bring in and rotate tens of thousands of U.S. military (and civilian) personnel in and out of Japan, living on or near military bases. Because so many U.S. citizens (almost as many as U.S. nationals that live in Japan as a standard foreign resident) move in and out of Japan, serving the U.S. military, the U....

Most democratic governments run a publicly funded newspaper that keeps track of all the proceedings of what goes on in their government on the public record. In Japan, it's called the 官報 { kampō } (The Official Gazette) . In the United States, it's called the Federal Register . Each country has their quirks as to what gets published and what doesn't. For example, Japan publishes the (former) name, birthdate, and home address of every person who naturalizes. In the 21st century, nobody would dream of putting this info out there due to risks of identity theft or invasion of privacy. The reason they do it, though, is because it's a legal requirement; it's been on the books since the Nationality Law was first written for the modern Constitution in the middle of last century. On the other hand, while Japan publishes statistics on how many people renounce, they do not publish the actual names and other details of those who do it. The United States is the opposit...

The OECD recently updated its data breaking down the number of naturalizations that occur in the countries of the world, and pointed out the top countries that do it. Most people don't think of Japan as a country where many people obtain nationality through naturalization, but considering there are hundreds of countries (193) in the world, it's surprising to see Japan in the top fifteen. Japan handily beats out countries such as Ireland, Denmark, and Austria when it comes to annual naturalization. What's surprising to me is generally Japanese, the language, is less commonly known by non-Japanese compared to the European languages (including English) spoken by some other countries in Europe. The size of the economy and thus the perceived availability of jobs may be a factor in this. Probably coming as no surprise to anybody is the fact that United States naturalizations beat the rest of the world, dwarfing the second place Russia. Making up most of the top ten are ot...

In the early nineties, I was a senior in college studying for a artificial intelligence exam in the Sun workstation lab in our computer science building. The exam was at 8am. It was 2am. Taking a study break, I wandered the lobby of Davis Hall when I saw a flyer on the bulletin board by the elevator: Want to see the world before you end up working at Big Software after graduation? Does a one year paid adventure overseas exchanging culture and language interest you? At the bottom of the flyer was a phone number and address for the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. Having not made up my mind where I was going to start my software engineering career, and knowing that the AI exam would signify the conclusion of my undergraduate education, I scribbled down the information then went on IRC (a real-time internet group chat protocol that had its heydays in the nineties) and asked what the flyer was all about on the #japan channel. I was told it was part of the JET Program, and it wa...

This may not be the most helpful blog post in the history of mankind, since my first attempt to renounce my US citizenship today was more or less a failure...but since there seems to be a real lack of concrete information and personal experiences out there ( Debito's is the only thorough account I've been able to find publicly available, and it's eight years old by now), I figure that "What not to do" may help some of you...at least more than nothing at all will. The US Embassy's webpage is, in my humble opinion, ridiculously difficult to navigate. It takes a good four or five clicks from the main page (assuming you don't take any wrong turns along the way) to find information like the address, operating hours, and the fact that apparently you are now required to make an appointment for citizen services. Don't worry, though, apparently (though it's not written anywhere on the website), renunciation doesn't fall into the same category...

A helpful reader who is going through the naturalization process generously donated his Microsoft Word based blank and sample naturalization forms for distribution on this blog. We already have web page sample versions at our Documents and Forms page , which are derived from the examples in the てびき { tebiki } (guidebook) . These are useful for referring to, browsing and viewing without needing to use any extra software. They can even be viewed with many mobile phone browsers. However, these word processor versions are more suited for direct editing, printing, and submitting directly to the 法務局 { hōmukyoku } (Legal Affairs Bureau). The use of word processed forms is permitted for everything except the 動機書 { dōkisho } (Motivation Essay), which must be handwritten — similar to how many Japanese companies still want you to handwrite a form based 履歴書 { rirekisho } . For the case of naturalization, though, I don't think they're judging your handwriting. The map of ...

This question is really a matter of opinion and every situation is different. First, neither one is easy . But in general, there are two different answers for the two major types of residents in Japan: If you are married to a Japanese national or a non-Japanese with permanent residency status, permanent residency is easier . If you are single or are not married to either a Japanese national or a permanent resident of Japan, Japanese naturalization is easier . There are many theories, but the most common theory as to why it's so relatively easy to get 永住者の資格 { eijūsha no shikaku } (permanent resident status) if you're married — to a Japanese or another permanent resident — is that the permanent residency is given to you not for your sake alone, but rather the sake of your Japanese family . In other words, they don't want a visa to limit your ability to support your spouse or your family in Japan, regardless of whether or not you're considered "skille...

Short answer: Yes! Even one in 漢字 { kanji } (Japanese ideographs)! You don't need to tattoo it on your arm or neck like a NBA athlete or state college student to make it official either! Very long answer: During my early years in Japan, I used to wonder about the 再入国入出国記 録 { sainyūkoku nyūshutsu-koku kiroku } (reentrant's disembarkation / embarkation) card that was attached into my U.S. passport every time I went overseas. In addition to a field for the 氏名 { shimei } (name), there were also fields above it for a  漢字 { kanji } (Chinese/Japanese/Korean ideograph) version of the name. As a test, I once filled out that field with 当て字 { ateji } (ideographs corresponding to the sounds of a non-Japanese word) that matched with my name at the time. When I showed it to immigration, the officer smiled and said, "Sorry, that field's only for people that have registered 漢字 { kanji } with the legal organs in their home country." At first I felt a little...