Becoming Japanese

licensed from iStock Japan has a procedure called 国籍選択 { kokuseki sentaku } (Choice of Nationality). It was created with the revision of the Japanese nationality laws to address the issue of involuntary multiple nationality acquisition by Japanese — usually those who are minors that received citizenship from a new world country in the Americas such as the United States via jus soli (nationality based on where you were born, sometimes called "birthright nationality"): Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians, for example. However, it can also apply in other circumstances, such as if you acquire another nationality involuntarily (meaning, you did not directly apply for it or naturalize) — such as through marriage to a person from a country that does not separate nationality with marriage (called jus matrimonii ) or religion. It can also happen when somebody acquired citizenship after birth due to the revision in the Japan Nationality Law in 1985 that allowed people to...

Your domicile can be anywhere in Japan Part of the application form ( 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinseisho } ) for applying for Japanese naturalization requires you to choose your "Registered Domicile" (what it's translated as on Japanese Passports). It's very similar to choosing one's new name as a Japanese. Unlike most natural born Japanese, who have their name and domicile chosen for them by their parents, naturalized Japanese get to choose it themselves. Like names, there are guidelines as to what is a good choice and what isn't, and naturalized Japanese follow the same rules that natural born Japanese follow. Like family names in Japan, your spouse and dependents must all have the same one. Your choice affects your driver's license (inside the IC chip), your family register ( 戸籍 { koseki } ), and your Japanese passport ( パスポート { pasupōto } ／ 旅券 { ryoken } ). Legally, the choice you make affects your day to day life much less than your choi...