Becoming Japanese

Once you have collected all the paperwork, and the public servant / case worker assigned to you determines that everything is in order, you will then be given the oath paperwork to sign and date (two copies). Compared to other countries, the oath is very simple and commonsense. There's no mention of the emperor, protecting Japan from its enemies, serving in the military, references to religion, or other non-Constitutional or law references with the exception of "being a good citizen." Here's the text of the oath, in full: 宣誓書 { senseisho } 私は、 { watashi wa, } 日本憲法 { nihon kempō } 及び { oyobi } 法令を守り、 { hōrei o mamori, } 定められた義務を履行し、 { sadamerareta gimu o rikō shi, } 善良な国民と zenryō na kokumin to } なることを誓います。 { naru koto o chikaimasu. } Translated into English, this means: Oath Statement I swear to obey the Constitution of Japan as well as its laws and ordinances, fulfilling the established duties, and become a good citizen. (There's only on...

It's not much, but the "form" used to certify that your mother only gave birth to a stated number of children is now online and accessible from our Docs & Forms page . As mentioned in an earlier post , it's okay to pre-translate this particular form into English or another language (should the mother be uncomfortable signing something in a language she's can't read or understand) then attach a Japanese translation to the signed document. And unlike other documents, where they ask that all foreign names be written in 仮名 { kana } (Japanese syllabet), it's okay for the mother to write the names in Latin / Roman letters.

One of the most arduous paperwork processes for naturalization is the collection of birth, death, divorce, adoption, and marriage certificates for your family. It's tough paperwork to get because most likely you are in Japan, and most likely that paperwork is overseas. Because that paperwork is often decades old, most family members are not in possession of it and have moved or are living in a place far away from the local government office which holds their records. This means that in addition to you needing to contact your family, your family members will probably need to apply, via mail, to retrieve copies of their records. A paper chain relay, if you will. You will also need your own birth (hopefully not death), and possibly marriage, adoption, or divorce certificates, so you can empathize with your family members' paperwork pain. Why does Japan need these certificates? All Japanese citizens either have or belong to a 戸籍 { koseki } (family register), which tracks J...

OpenDocument format versions of the naturalization forms we received and distributed in a previous post are now available. In addition to being accessible to people with newer versions of Microsoft Word , they are also accessible to people using alternative word processors and productivity suites. These will be indexed in the Docs and Forms page as well. This blog's Help page gives a little bit of advice regarding how to open these documents. For those that don't have confidence in their Japanese handwriting ability (like me), these forms should help make the completing the naturalization forms a little less painful. OpenDocument Format version English name 必要書類一覧表 { hitsuyō shorui ichiranhyō } Table of Necessary Documents 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinsei-sho } Naturalization Permission Application Form (blank) 帰化許可申請書 { kika kyoka shinsei-sho } （ 例 { rei } ） Naturalization Permission Application Form (SAMPLE) 親族の概要 { shinzoku no gaiyō } Family Outline 親族の概要 { ...

A helpful reader who is going through the naturalization process generously donated his Microsoft Word based blank and sample naturalization forms for distribution on this blog. We already have web page sample versions at our Documents and Forms page , which are derived from the examples in the てびき { tebiki } (guidebook) . These are useful for referring to, browsing and viewing without needing to use any extra software. They can even be viewed with many mobile phone browsers. However, these word processor versions are more suited for direct editing, printing, and submitting directly to the 法務局 { hōmukyoku } (Legal Affairs Bureau). The use of word processed forms is permitted for everything except the 動機書 { dōkisho } (Motivation Essay), which must be handwritten — similar to how many Japanese companies still want you to handwrite a form based 履歴書 { rirekisho } . For the case of naturalization, though, I don't think they're judging your handwriting. The map of ...

This question is really a matter of opinion and every situation is different. First, neither one is easy . But in general, there are two different answers for the two major types of residents in Japan: If you are married to a Japanese national or a non-Japanese with permanent residency status, permanent residency is easier . If you are single or are not married to either a Japanese national or a permanent resident of Japan, Japanese naturalization is easier . There are many theories, but the most common theory as to why it's so relatively easy to get 永住者の資格 { eijūsha no shikaku } (permanent resident status) if you're married — to a Japanese or another permanent resident — is that the permanent residency is given to you not for your sake alone, but rather the sake of your Japanese family . In other words, they don't want a visa to limit your ability to support your spouse or your family in Japan, regardless of whether or not you're considered "skille...

justlanded.com: Japanese citizenship: How to become Japanese While the errors in this article are large and egregious, it's only fair to note that these assumptions about Japanese naturalization are made all over the internet and thus is typical of the misunderstandings people have about the difficulty to naturalize in Japan. Articles like this, among other reasons, inspired me to start this blog. The article makes the following claims: CLAIM: Only ethnic Japanese are eligible for automatic citizenship, which means that there are ethnic minorities (Koreans, Chinese) born and raised in Japan, who speak nothing but Japanese that are still not Japanese citizens. ACTUALLY: If your parents have Japanese nationality, you can get Japanese nationality. It's not based on ethnic ity. Automatic citizenship is based on many things, the biggest one being your parents nationality . The reason there are ethnic minorities such as Koreans and Chinese that are born and raised in...