Hello everyone,
I am an American citizen in my 20’s and my mother is a Japanese citizen. Unfortunately, due to difficult circumstances, I was not recorded on my families koseki and was not granted citizenship by birth.
Now, I understand that Japan does not officially acknowledge dual nationality but am aware of those like my other family members, who have both passports.
Would I, hypothetically, be able to obtain Japanese citizenship without giving up my American citizenship? For example, I go to the Japanese consulate , while in the United States and then apply for Japanese citizenship while in the states. Would there be anyway for them to know I didn’t renounce my US citizenship, and due to the bureaucracy, would I be able to hold onto both?
I understand this is not legal according to the laws of the Japanese government, nor am I asking for legal advice but I am curious of what everyone thinks?
TLDR: US citizen, Mom is Japanese citizen. I wasn’t added to my families koseki. Would I be able to gain Japanese nationality while in the United States without officially giving up my US citizenship?
Thank you!
3 comments
In principle, obtaining Japanese citizenship requires renouncing all other citizenship you might hold. Whether or not you’ll ever be made to prove you’ve done so is impossible to predict, but that *is* the rule.
>I was not recorded on my families koseki and was not granted citizenship by birth.
Then you are not a Japanese citizen, and if you wanted to become one you’d have to follow the regular process which includes renouncing all other foreign nationalities (where possible). Gaining Japanese citizenship would also require living in Japan for a period of time first.
>Would there be anyway for them to know I didn’t renounce my US citizenship
They would ask for proof within two years of gaining your Japanese citizenship. If you fail to provide proof they could revoke your Japanese citizenship.
If you want to move to Japan you could easily get yourself a “child of a Japanese national” visa. No time limits, no restrictions on work. Just renew for as long as you stay in Japan (or until you naturalize or gain permanent residence).
As per Article 12 of the ‘nationality law’
https://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html
“*A Japanese national who was born in a foreign country and has acquired a foreign nationality by birth shall lose Japanese nationality retroactively as from the time of birth, unless the Japanese national clearly indicates his or her volition to reserve Japanese nationality according to the provisions of the Family Registration Law (Law No.224 of 1947).*”
Essentially, your parents had 3 months from after your birth outside Japan, to register your birth to Japan.
So if that did not happen the. unfortunately you’re not a Japanese citizen.
You can however obtain a ‘child of a Japanese national’ visa and then move to Japan, meet the requirement consecutive residency for naturalization and then naturalize to Japan. That will of course mean you have to renounce your US citizenship within 2 years after naturalization to Japan though because you don’t get to utilize the “make declaration of choice, choose Japan and then strive to renounce the other nationality but never actually do” that those born dual get to utilize.
(That said given the worldwide taxation and PFICs restrictions on investing outside the US renouncing US citizenship is something that if I was a US citizen I would have no issue doing)