Becoming Japanese

A Eurasian ハーフ { hāfu } (mixed race), some say she resembles Anne Hathaway ( アン・ハサウェイ { An · HASAWEI } ). Not long after it was discovered that Japan's The Democratic Party 's Renho ( 村田蓮舫 { MURATA Renhō } ), born with Taiwanese ROC nationality but later acquired Japanese nationality at the age of 18 due to the 1985 nationality law change , had failed to legally renounce her foreign nationalities, people discovered that another member of the House of Councillors, Kimi Onoda ( 小野田紀美 { ONODA Kimi } ), had failed to complete her Declaration of Choice by legally relinquishing her U.S. nationality after making her Declaration choosing Japanese nationality. Kimi Onoda was born in Chicago, Illinois, to an American father and a Japanese mother, in 1982. Her family returned to Japan, where she did all of her compulsory schooling and high school education in Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture ( 岡山県瀬戸内市 { Okayama-ken Setouchi-shi } ) before moving to Tokyo and graduating f...

(This diagram assumes two votes. There may be more or less) Last month Japanese nationals, including naturalized citizens, voted for half of the Diet /ˈdaɪɪt/ ( 国会 { kokkai } )'s House of Councillors ( 参議院 { sangiin } ). Diet is the name for Japan's parliament and whose non-Japanese name comes from Prussian influence and means "deliberative assembly". An equivalent to a Councillor would be a senator in United States or Australian politics. Long ago New Zealand's parliament was bicameral, and it too had upper house politicians called councillors. The House of Councillors is the upper house of the bicameral parliament, and Councillors serve for six years, with half of the Councillors coming up for election every three years. This means that every three (3) years half (121 Councillors out of a total of 242) come up for election. When you vote for the House of Councillors, you vote two times: once for one person representing your local Constituency dis...

Three AKB48 members encourage Tokyo citizens to vote. Yes, they're old enough to vote. This month, on December 16th, Japan will be holding a major election for various seats due to 野田佳彦総理大臣 { NODA Yoshihiko sōridaijin } (Prime Minister Yoshihiko NODA) dissolving the lower house (House of Representatives, or 衆議院 { shūgiin } ). Additionally, Tokyoites will vote for a new governor. It's a very important election, as there are major issues surrounding the debt crisis & raising the consumption tax, free trade liberalization with the TPP , foreign affairs & sovereign territory disputes, energy policy & nuclear power, and a potential shift in representation for the majority party (currently 民主党 { minshutō } } — the Democratic Party of Japan — which has no relation to the political party of the same name in the United States) as well as the governor of Tokyo, who presides over an area that has a larger population and GDP than many countries in the world. How does ...