Becoming Japanese

In an old post, I mentioned how unlike the United States, Japan has no civics test quizzing applicants about their knowledge of the constitution, the country's history, geography, or government. In fact, most people are not tested on their Japanese ability either, because if your Japanese ability is comfortable enough that the case worker does not think you are struggling to communicate, understand them, and read or write simple forms, they will skip testing to see whether or not you have rudimentary ability. But what if there was a test? What would it be like? Of course, a real test administered by the Ministry of Justice would be entirely in Japanese. But for fun, I made a make-believe test a few years ago, and it was relatively popular. The post is now old though and some of the questions are dated. Additionally, Google Forms now has the capability to make a proper test that will provide graded results after you submit your answers. I have been told that the test is not e...

That's a lot of kids. Victoria Ferauge, author of the blog "The Franco-American Flophouse" , who is a graduate student in International Migration at the University of Kent Brussels School of International Studies, has reached out to me to ask our readers and contributors (not just naturalized Japanese, but anybody who is a native English speaker that lives in Japan) if they would participate in a small online survey about one's level of integration into Japanese society. I have known Victoria from her blog about living in Osaka and her own issues of expatriation, so I'm familiar with her work and opinions. I took the survey myself and it took me less than 5 minutes to complete. If you'd like to take the survey, please click on the link below. It is anonymous, and no ads or anything obtrusive is done. If you have any questions or would like to see the results of the study, please email her at: v... @kent.ac.uk . Here is the survey address: https://www...

People that naturalize to become U.S. citizens must pass a U.S. citizenship test to become legally American. There are lots of web sites that teach you how to pass it. For Japan, there is no quiz. The only thing that comes close is the need to be able to speak and read Japanese during the interviews with the case workers. Technically speaking, it's part of the requirement that you can demonstrate that you have the skills to provide for your livelihood in Japan. If your Japanese language skills are weak, they may actually ask you to take a small quiz demonstrating that you have the Japanese literacy (as in Japanese sinogram and syllabet recognition and recall) ability of a primary/elementary school student in the third (3rd) grade. However, unlike the U.S. Citizenship Test for naturalization — which can be taken in languages other than English for certain applicants — your interviews will not have any sort of questions testing your knowledge of Japanese civics or history. A...