Hello all:
I am a university student currently studying engineering in the United States. I am half-Japanese, born and (partially) raised in Japan, who wishes to go back to wrap up my graduate studies in Japan. I am well aware that Japanese programs in English aren’t the best, but graduate school is a bit different (more research focused), and I am planning on living in Japan long term.
As I look into some international (read: English) engineering programs at Japanese universities, I have come across a couple of schools for which one must be a foreign citizen (can obtain a student visa) in order to apply. I was wondering if you think it may be worth it to renounce my Japanese citizenship and apply to these schools. My only reservation is that if I am to stay in Japan long term, this would not be the best choice.
Another option I may have is to study in Japanese (I am conversationally fluent) and take the Japanese entrance examinations as a domestic student (and then I may transfer as a domestic student to the English program). This would allow me to keep my dual nationality, and gives me the advantage of having a reason to study engineering in Japanese – which is something I probably will eventually have to do, given that I wish to stay long-term in Japan.
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My final option is to apply to schools that do not have this eligibility criteria. While these schools are great, they are not my top choice, and I consider them as “back-ups”.
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Thank you in advance.
8 comments
This sounds like a really bad idea imo.
> I am planning on living in Japan long term.
I literally stopped reading right there.
If you are planning on living in Japan long term it is a ***terrible*** idea to renounce your citizenship. Doing so will make everything about living here harder. Obviously lots of us manage it, but why would you throw away an easier solution?
As a citizen you don’t need to worry about visas.
As a citizen you don’t need to worry landlords who won’t rent to foreigners.
As a citizen you don’t need to get permission from immigration to work a side job.
As a citizen you have a ***much*** easier time getting access to credit and things like home loans.
No.
You can have dual citizenship as a Japanese.
Apply as 帰国子女
I renounced mine and I regret it. I’m currently looking now at making a move to Japan in the next few years, and I will have to jump through several big hoops to get a Child of Japanese National Visa.
If you want to move back to Japan, just finish school first in your current country (esp if you are US based) and then go back afterwards or apply to study as a domestic Japanese.
So you plan to attend Hokkaido University Engineering. I graduated from the same English program. I know of at least 3 JP citizens (3 years ago) who were in the English Engineering graduate program. I suggest contacting the program itself to confirm they allow JP citizens and what were the arrangements. As far as I know they had no restrictions on the nationality, so you could apply as a JP citizen. Renouncing it when planning to live here long term is a bad idea.
Is there another uni you can apply to? Getting rid of citizenship is a terrible idea. I also have Japanese citizenship and mainly grew up abroad, so my English is much stronger than my Japanese. I’m not in the same field as you, but I was accepted to a grad program at the University of Tsukuba that allows anyone to apply in either English or Japanese, regardless of citizenship. Maybe you can find a uni that does something similar for Engineering? Tsukuba might have one, but to be honest I don’t recommend going there, I was there one semester and stuff went south so I left on leave for now, not sure what’s happening next, but that’s another story…
Please read these threads:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/qfpz1s/dual_citizenship/](https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/qfpz1s/dual_citizenship/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/8iczg8/renewing_japanese_passport_as_a_dualcitizen/dyriqmp/](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/8iczg8/renewing_japanese_passport_as_a_dualcitizen/dyriqmp/)
It seems the best approach is to submit the official form stating you choose Japanese citizenship, then “‘endeavor’ to deprive yourself of your foreign nationality” but never get around to it. The US doesn’t care. Japan looks the other way. But whatever you do, don’t lie.