Becoming Japanese

  Eight former Japanese nationals, aged 30 to 80, men and women, six who have acquired Swiss or Liechtenstein nationality and two others who plan to obtain Swiss or French nationality, led by Hitoshi Nogawa, currently living in Europe, attempted to sue the Japan government arguing that the Nationality's Laws policies regarding acquiring additional citizenships was unconstitutional and also against the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights. The trial started on August 20th, 2020, and was ruled upon January 21st, 2021.  They are attempting to appeal. I suspect that the intent of the lawsuit was never to win, as the arguments it presented, while making for a good show for the press, were extremely weak from the perspective of both constitutional law and international law. Among the arguments they attempted to make: They argued that the Nationality Law contradicts the second paragraph of Article 22 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of expatriation. Article 22 o...

"YAMAMOTO" Mona 中西モナ { NAKANISHI Mona } (Mona NAKANISHI née YAMAMOTO) is a retired television journalist and announcer of Japanese and Norwegian descent. She was one of the pioneers of the mixed-heritage public personalities in Japan, even though she grew up entirely in Japan and her connection to Norway is more racial and (was) legal rather than ethnic. She is also known as one of the "intelligent" television announcers / personalities, having received a Masters in Business Administration and graduated from an elite Japanese university. Once she began working for the Tokyo television station TBS, other competing networks had to have educated 「国際人」 { "kokusaijin" } ("International Person") in their lineup of talent, leading to the success of well-known multi-lingual multi-background Japanese nationals such as 滝川ラルドゥクリステル雅美 { TAKIGAWA Rarudu Kurisuteru Masami } ; Takigawa even changed her early "professional public-use" (s...

reject, misfit, trailblazer, journalist / muckraker, writer / hack, pioneer / legend Patrick "Lafcadio" Hearn, who would later become 小泉八雲 { KOIZUMI Yakumo } , was a Greek Anglo-Irish* writer/journalist and English language teacher who might hold the distinction of being the very first person to legally acquire Japanese nationality via naturalization. He did this by marrying the daughter of a samurai who had just been stripped of his feudal class ranking due to the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 { Meiji ishin } ) and the introduction of Japan's first constitution: the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ( 大日本帝国憲法 { Dai-Nippon teikoku kempō } ), aka the Meiji Constitution ( 明治憲法 { Meiji kempō } ). * Although Hearn lived in America for much of his young adult life, he never legally became a U.S. citizen. It is assumed he was a British subject as his father was British and he was born on a Greek island that was British controlled. Why is he probably the first fore...