I have dual citizenship from Canada and Japan and am going to study to Japan as an exchange student

4 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

   —

   **I have dual citizenship from Canada and Japan and am going to study to Japan as an exchange student**

   hi guys,

   I’ll be going to Japan to study at a Japanese university in October.

   Will I need to renounce my Japanese citizenship? Because it seems pretty weird to me for a Japanese citizen to be doing an exchange program.

   Any help is much appreciated,

   Thanks 🙂

   *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*

2. Please please please do not renounce your citizenship, something that could give you advantages your entire life, just so you can study abroad in Japan for a year or something.

   Speak to your university.

3. If you received both your citizenships at birth, you do not need to renounce them, ever. You simply need to follow the correct rules and you will keep both. [See /u/jbankers’ excellent comments here](https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/8iczg8/renewing_japanese_passport_as_a_dualcitizen/dyt8oo0/?context=3) to know what you need to do.

   As far as coming to Japan as an exchange student, you can certainly do this. However you must travel to Japan on a Japanese passport as you are a Japanese citizen. Do not go through the process of getting a student visa.

4. You never have to renounce your Japanese citizenship. I read an article about a Japanese person who went to a university abroad, returned to Japan as an exchange student. The exchange program is a partnership between your university and a Japanese university. It’s fine as long as neither of them raises any objections.