Becoming Japanese

Not just for 20-year olds anymore Until a few decades ago, the age of majority for being able to do anything in Japan, was twenty years of age. That was when you were considered to be an adult. Over recent years, however, the age to be able to do things such as vote, drive, view mature movies, etc., has been changing from 20 to 18. This first started in 2015, when they lowered the voting age from 20 to 18. Then in 2018, the Japanese Government approved a bill that would lower the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 by 2022. This will enable 18- and 19-year-olds to sign contracts and get married without the consent of their parents. However, just like many countries don't allow 18 year old adults to drink or smoke until they're older (21 in America), Japan will still require you to be 20 to purchase or consume alcohol and tobacco. The Japanese law lowering the age of majority that will come into effect next year in April will allow eighteen year old non-Japanese to naturalize. Previo...

(image licensed from CartoonStock ) Every blue moon an acquaintance points me to an article about a naturalized person (or somebody related to one) in Japan who has made the news… and often not in a good way (trouble with the law, extreme / bizarre behavior, family / finance trouble, etc). The caption included with the news clipping is often something like: I'm gonna tell all my friends that if I ever mutter the word "naturalization" to smack some sense into me, because apparently that's the sign that one's mental state is about to crumble. However, I believe these people have the cause-correlation backwards. Naturalizing doesn't make somebody nuts or causes them to screw up their lives. Rather, people who are already nuts (or are a little dodgy/unethical) tend to be attracted to naturalization (and especially the corresponding losing / renouncing / relinquishing / adding-to one's previous nationality) because in their minds, they view the act of ...

There is a lot of erroneous and false information on the internet, in English, about Japanese naturalization. So much of it is false that we actually have a section of this site dedicated to collecting false articles and pointing out their errors . Sometimes, the webmasters of these sites, when doing SEO tuning, discover the articles on this site that point to and embarrass them by disclosing their site's lack of accuracy. For example, a nice editor at justlanded.com, who was revising and revamping and modernizing the content at the site, reached out to us and let us know that they had seen our article and had rewritten it with the correct information . We replied and noted and thanked them for correcting and propagating the correct information . eHow is another site that has done this. The old article has been deleted, and the old link has been reconfigured to now point to a generic article about Japanese immigration . They have, however, commissioned new article writers ...

They will probably outlive you. Anybody that believes they can massively extend their lifespan by changing their passport is unfortunately probably going to be disappointed a few decades down the road after they acquire their Japanese passport. And by "disappointed", I mean dead. Nobody thinks that becoming legally Japanese is going to magically add years to your life. Many, however, are under the impression that if you live in Japan that there must be something in the water, air, or food that makes Japanese have one of the longest lifespans in the world. As of 2011, Japanese in Japan had the following average lifespan: Males: 79.5 years old (#12 in the world) Females: 85.8 years old (#1 in the world) Overall life expectancy for Japanese in Japan: 82.7 (#1 in the world) What people outside of Japan (and many foreign residents in Japan are in denial over) don't realize is that even foreigners — and those whose naturalize — who live in Japan for decades rarel...

The age of majority is 20, not 18, in Japan Every once and a while I get a question from a very enthusiastic person who is really interested in all things Japanese and really wants to live in Japan. Forever. While I can certainly appreciate their enthusiasm on one level — after all, I and others did make a lifelong commitment to living in Japan in the form of a family, a career, and a lifestyle encapsulated legally with naturalization, there's another part of me that knows that it took many years for me to pull myself up from my bootstraps and get to the point where naturalizing would not be a scary or risky thing due to financial instability. The minimum age to naturalize is twenty (20) years old. Why twenty and not eighteen (18)? Because twenty is the age you are considered to be an "adult" in Japan. It is the age you can drive. It is the age you can smoke. It is the age you can drink. It is the age you participate in the special national public holiday, 成人の日 ...

"Naturalize and become a Japanese!" It's been a while since I've written about a source of information on the internet that was incorrect. This next entry is unusual in that it comes from a source that should be reputable: a lawyer/consultant specializing in Japanese immigration. On the page titled "I want to become a Japanese national" written by the Tokyo Immigration Service (Immigration Solicitor 佐藤正巳 { MASAMI Satō } ), the following is written under "1. Duration of Stay": You are required to have a valid visa ( Status of Residence ) from the Immigration Bureau of Japan at the time of application and you must have been living in Japan for at least 5 years. Also the bureau confirms whether you have been living in Japan at least 80% of the 365 days every year. The time spent on a Student visa cannot be counted in this 5 year period. This isn't exactly true: all valid continuous 在留資格 { zairyū shikaku } (Status of Residence; SoR)...

You have to be an adult in Japan... You have to be an adult in both of your countries, unless your parent(s) or legal guardian is naturalizing with you (a family naturalization). This means you have to be twenty (20) years old. However, if your original country has a higher age for the recognition of adulthood, you have to clear that hurdle too. So if in your home country, you're not an adult until you're 22, you have to wait until you're 22 to naturalize. There are certain parts of the naturalization procedure that are different if you're under fifteen (15) years old: You don't sign the 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinseisho } (Permission to naturalize application form); your parent / legal guardian does You don't need to fill out the 履歴書 { rirekisho } (Personal History Form) You don't need to write the 動機書 { dōkisho } (Motivational Essay) You don't need to sign the 宣誓書 { senseisho } (Oath Statement) Your photo on the application needs...

" How to become a Japanese Citizen " by Stephen Lilley http://www.ehow.com/how_4556306_become-japanese-citizen.html There are a few mistakes in this article (other than the clerical error that caused the article to be filed under " Chinese Culture "): The age requirements are not mentioned. The single citizenship requirement is not mentioned. The "don't advocate overthrowing the government of constitution by force" requirement isn't mentioned, though we'll assume that this is part of the "history of good behavior" requirement. It's possible to have stayed in Japan continuously for less than five years (if you are married to a Japanese spouse for over three years) and qualify for naturalization. "Fluency" in Japanese is not necessary. And the statement that the interview is "the most difficult part of the application process" is not the opinion of most people who have naturalized. For most applican...