Becoming Japanese

credit: Ann Swinderman The December 9th, 2017 article published in the Japan Times' national news section , written by Philip Brasor , is titled with the bold alarming proclamation that: Without an official father, kids can be stateless [in Japan] Is this really true? With the semantics word "can", this is pedantically true, although in reality, many other, much more rarer conditions must also (fail to) be met. Although arguably not an ideal situation, there are countless children born in Japan who receive Japanese nationality at birth even without an official or known father. To be born without a nationality in Japan, many more conditions must not be met (such as, and arguably much more important, like the existence of a birth certificate). What IS true is that when neither jus sanguinis nor jus soli can be used to determine a child's origins, then it is possible that a child may not acquire Japanese nationality immediately at birth. The author of the a...

Japan and the U.S. have no exact equivalent Part of the steps involving collecting all the paperwork for one's naturalization application to Japan involves getting "proof" of your current nationalities. You would think that this would be as simple as presenting your current, valid, passports . The problem is mainly this: a passport does indeed indicate what country (one of them, at least) you were a national of, that information was true only at the time of the application for the passport. Passports often last at least five years (such as the Japanese "blue" passport), and more often, ten (10) years (such as the Japanese "red" passport) . It's very possible that one could have lost that citizenship from the time the passport was issued. And while if you lose one's nationality/citizenship countries almost always cancel the passport — sometimes this is only done digitally in databases if the country cannot get access to the actual passpo...

One of the most curious things that you get asked for during your initial paperwork collection is for a document called "proof of citizenship". You are asked for this in addition to  your passport. Your passport is a photo/biometric identification, and all passports clearly list the country that you are a citizen of, so why is additional documentation necessary? The answer is related to the length of time that a passport is valid for. The 法務省 { hōmushō } (Ministry of Justice), in general, wants all of the documentation is receives to be issued or certified within six months. For some documents, three months. A typical passport, on the other hand, often doesn't expire for five or ten years. Because the naturalization process of gathering and review by the case worker, which can involve multiple appointments separated by weeks to months, many applicants have stories of paperwork that they initially gathered at the beginning of the process "expiring" befo...

Starting July 13, 2010, the U.S. Embassies and Consulates will be increasing their rates. The fees related to naturalization starting this month will be as follows: NEW CONSULAR FEES EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 CURRENT FEE NEW FEE Passport Fees Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship $450 $  2,350.00 File Search and Verification of U.S. Citizenship $  60.00 $  150.00 Overseas Citizens Services Disposition/Shipment of Remains of a non-U.S. Citizen $265.00 + expenses $200.00 + expenses Documentary Services Notarials, Certifications of True Copies, Authentications, provision of Department of State records $ 30.00 (first), $ 20.00 (addt'l) $ 50.00 Why are some fees going up and some going down? According to the U.S. government: The 27 adjusted fees are based on a Cost of Service Study completed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs in June 2009.  The study, which was the most detailed and exhaustive ever conducted by th...