Becoming Japanese

It's been brought to my attention that the previous post (which was originally published first on Quora, then edited and posted here ) is apparently popular enough that some kind translator, Jerome Cohen , took it upon himself to translate it into French for better availability to non-English readers. I thank him for making this popular post available to a wider audience. Please do check out his French translations of other questions about Japan and Japanese from his Quora profile as well as the Quora in French page on Facebook . Je suis en fait une personne qui a fait cela (je suis devenu légalement japonais). La réponse courte est que vous pouvez avoir le nom que vous voulez, avec quatre conditions: Il doit être écrit exclusivement en, ou une combinaison de, hiragana (moderne, pas archaïque), katakana, ou kanji. Tout comme vous ne pouvez pas écrire un nom sur des documents officiels américains en thaïlandais, cyrillique, hangul ou arabe... ou même utiliser des signes ...

You can have any name you want,  and it can be as long as you want , providing four conditions: None of these characters are allowed in a Japanese 戸籍 { koseki } (family register). It has to be written exclusively in or a combination of ( modern, not archaic ) hiragana, katakana , or kanji . Just like you can’t write a name on American official documents in Thai, Cyrillic, Hangul, or Arabic … or even use diacritic marks used in European languages ( ex. the German sharp S [“ß”] or French cedilla [ç] or others [ÂÄÅÀÁ]) — people becoming American must adapt their name to the plain 26 character alphabet — you have to adapt your name to Japan’s writing system. Because there is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence between either Japanese language "spelling" or pronunciation and other languages, most non-Japanese names will need to be adapted or modified for the new writing system. "Adrian" for example would become 「エイドリアン」 which when literally converted t...

Colombia is the only South American country that has a coast on the Pacific Ocean & Caribbean Sea Hi, my name is ロドリゲス オスカル { RODORIGESU Osukaru } , a Colombian-born, Japanese national. As you can probably infer from my name, I have no Japanese, or any kind of Asian ancestry. Prior to arriving in Japan on 2008, I had no particular connections to Japan, yet here I am, as a naturalized Japanese national. I left Colombia on some pretty good terms. Without being particularly wealthy, I was a 20-something professional working in IT in Colombia when I decided to come to Japan as a graduate student. I still am in very good terms with my family and friends back there, and I visit about once every two years-ish as budget allows. ( ｲﾒｰｼﾞ { imēji } : not actually the author of this post) Unlike many people who naturalize, I didn't have permanent residence when I applied; I had been on a renewable 技術 { gijutsu } or "Engineer" status of residence, working for ...

Let me start by telling you: YES! It is possible! And ALL you need are 3 things. Language knowledge  A stable income  A sincere reason WHY do you want to be a Japanese citizen.  Many people, even the officers at the 法務局 { hōmukyoku } (Legal Affairs Bureau) will tell you that your chances to get accepted are low compare to descendants or spouses of Japanese Nationals. However THAT'S NOT TRUE. There I was, 27 years old, female, full-time worker, and single. The only advantage I might have had was the fact that I was already a permanent resident. No need for visa to work or re-enter to Japan. The only difference with a citizen is that I didn’t have the right to vote. And that’s it. I could have lived here forever without any troubles. Then why becoming Japanese? I have been living in Japan for 13 years, arrived here with my family (all foreigners) when I was 16 years old. Went to high school, got my bachelor’s degree and started working for the...

HAVENAAR Mike in Samurai Blue Mike Havenaar ( ハーフナー・マイク { HĀFUNĀ · Maiku } ) is a professional soccer player. He has represented the JFA national team in international competition as a 194cm 86kg striker at 26 years of age. He has played for many clubs, but currently he's playing for Netherland's SBV Vitesse Arnhem as a forward. “I really like Arnhem as a city, and it took just six months for me to feel at home here, but Japan is where my roots are,” Mike said to FIFA.com . "At first I had trouble acclimatizing, but since then the Dutch side in me — which I had kind of forgotten — has really come to the fore. Today I feel great, just like at home actually." He is also a naturalized Japanese national, however unlike many White naturalized people in Japan, there may be a good chance he would tell you that he couldn't tell you what it is like not to be Japanese. That is because he was born in Japan and was (passive tense) naturalized at the age of se...

This question came from a reader from the internet. Every situation is different, but to answer your question in the simplest way, the answer to your question is yes, naturalization as a family/group is possible, and some of the forms — such as the 親族の概要 { shinzoku no gaiyō } (Relatives Overview) — even have sections where you mark those who are applying with you as a set. The reason for this should be obvious. If a family member wants the unconditional right to be in Japan for the rest of his or her life, it makes obvious sense that he or she would want the family he lives with to have the same right as well. If it becomes clear, in the very unlikely case, that one or more of the family would not qualify for naturalization yet others would, the family would be consulted as to how they wish to proceed before anything that is irreversible would occur. In fact, if you look at the 官報 { kampō } (Diet's Official Gazette) listings, you'll see that families naturalizing...

If you are married to a Japanese when you decide to take Japanese citizenship, there are (at least) two decisions you will need to make not by yourself, but with your spouse as well: What to do about the family name? When you are a foreigner married to a Japanese, the two can have 別姓 { bessei } (separate last names) because the foreigner is not part of a Japanese family register, which groups all family members under the same family name. Once you naturalize, though, you have to unify under the same name for the purpose of a unified single Japanese family register. This means one of three options: Does your spouse take your foreign name, translated/transliterated into Japanese script: 漢字 { kanji } (Japanese sinograms) using 当て字 { ateji } (phonetically/meaning approximated characters), or 仮名 { kana } (Japanese syllabet)? Do you take your spouse's name? Do you pick an entirely separate new family name, and both of you go with this name? This could be a combination of ...

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...

On your first or second visit to the nationality section ( 国籍課 { kokusekika } ) of your local Legal Affairs Bureau ( 法務局 { hōmukyoku } ), your case worker will probably give you a check list of the items they want to see from you. Normally, they give this to your after your second visit. For your first round of paperwork, they normally ask for a few things to establish a base line to make sure you're qualified. For example, they'll want to see your Alien Registration Card ( 外国人登録証明書 { gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho } ) and your passport to see if you meet the minimum residency requirements. They do this because they don't want to waste their or your time having you collect all the rest of the paperwork if you don't make the baseline. On that checklist, there will be the obvious items (tax statements, birth certificates, etc.) that the case worker will put a check by. At the bottom of the list, though, there is a free form section with blanks, where the case worker ...

You will submit a lot of paperwork for your naturalization application. At the top of the application, however, will be a simple one page form that serves as the "header" document for all the "support" forms and documents detailing your finances, your entrances and exits to Japan, your family, etc. This form is called 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinseisho } (Naturalization Permission Application Form). It's called "Permission Application" ( 許可申請 { kyoka shinsei } ) because an successful approval of this form does not actually create your 戸籍 { koseki } (family register). An application that is approved by the Ministry of Justice ( 法務省 { hōmushō } ) creates and gives you the "breeder document" called the 帰化者の身分証明書 { kikasha no mibunshōmeisho } (Proof of Naturalized Person Identity Document). You use this form exactly once: you take it to the 戸籍課 { kosekika } (family register section) of your local 区役所／市役所 { kuyakusho/shiyakusho } (Wa...

TL;DR answer: they're completely fine with what it means legally and symbolically. While all of my immediate family are U.S. citizens, my father was actually born in England and naturalized to U.S. citizenship. He has been living in North America — both Canada and the United States — since he was a child so he has no British accent. He did not keep his U.K. nationality, as the laws and politics regarding nationality were very different back in the early 20th century. So you could say I came from a family who is no stranger to the concept of changing continents and nationalities. What they're not fine with? The fact that I (and these days, more importantly, their grandchild) are physically on the other side of the planet. They'd be perfectly fine with me taking Japanese citizenship then living in the U.S. under permanent residency. Or they'd be fine if I lived in sovereign nation of Japan as long as Japan was an island nation off the coast of the Commonwealth of Vir...

One of the documents you'll need to complete as part of the application process is the 親族の概要 { shinzoku no gaiyō } (family outline). The form they give you is an empty table, six columns by six rows. You can download and print the form from this site's Documents and Forms page . You are to complete two of these forms: one version for your overseas relatives (both Japanese and non-Japanese); and another version of it is for relatives — both Japanese and non-Japanese — that live in Japan. You will mark which form is which at the top header, which will give you a multiple choice: （ 居住地区分 { kyojū chikubun } ／□ 日本 { nippon } 　□ 海外 { kaigai } ） Check the left box for the form with your relatives living in Japan. Check the right box for your relatives living outside of Japan. You need to list the following people (regardless of whether they are dead or alive), excluding yourself: 同居の家族 { dōkyo no kazoku } (all family living with you) 配偶者 { haigūsha } (spouse) ...