‘You’re living in Japan illegally’: Woman shocked at sudden loss of Japanese nationality – The Mainichi

12 comments

1. She just needs to publish some internationally significant research or win a world recognized award and she will be Japanese again before you can blink.

2. It would be a different story if she was a Billionaire or Trillionaire.

3. “Little did she know” lol – as if any japanese living abroad didn’t know about this. My wife is japanese and I am canadian and she definitely knows 100% that if she takes canadian citizenship she will lose her japanese. I am super against that rule and I think it is stupid and long overdue that Japan changes the law but.. This woman just fucked around and found out.

4. >You don’t have a valid status of residence and you’re residing here illegally as a foreigner, so you can’t leave the country.

   This confused me. Why wouldn’t the procedure be to have her extradited to Canada then?

5. Jesus Christ that article needs an editor.

6. regardless of what you think about the topic itself, her story is total bullshit and the way it’s portrayed is extremely biased. first of all, I refuse to believe she didn’t know Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship, especially as she’s a university professor “specialized in international economics and related fields”. come on, everyone can tell that’s bullshit.
   also, her issue isn’t at all that somehow she’s in legal limbo or with uncertain status of nationality or anything like that but that “If she wanted to reacquire Japanese citizenship she could, but she didn’t want to go as far as renouncing her Canadian citizenship to do so.” so she’s not *shocked* at all, it is very clearly explained what the issue is, she just refuses to accept it and wants an exception made for her or the entire constitution changed just for her. she’s not passionate to fix any issues for others, she’s just caring for her own benefit now that it affects her.
   and finally, doesn’t the intro read like the typical nihonjinron racist remark that “only pure blooded Japanese may be real Japanese” but in reverse? “who was born in Japan and whose parents are Japanese, was shocked when the Japanese government suddenly told her one day: ‘You’re a foreigner illegally residing in the country.'” kinda sounds like the outrage here is denying a true and pure Japanese person Japanese citizenship. I wonder if there would be the same outrage if it was a Canadian woman born and raised in Japan who held Japanese citizenship before?

7. The original title of this article is “Even though I’m a Japanese citizen, I was declared as an illegal resident” and the tweet has over 2000 QRTs [「日本人なのに不法滞在と宣告されました」国籍法問う教授の闘い](https://twitter.com/mainichi/status/1676508717913628672?t=wn9ayDgHengI3OqKS-s9ng&s=09)

   I wonder why they changed the title to a boring one in the English version when it’s attracting a lot of attention to the article

8. Gaijin!!!

9. >When she explained the situation to Japanese immigration authorities, she was able to remain in Japan, but found out that if she went ahead and tried to leave the country, she would be forcibly deported and barred from entering Japan for five years under the immigration law. If she wanted to reacquire Japanese citizenship she could, but she didn’t want to go as far as renouncing her Canadian citizenship to do so.

   Ok, she’s an idiot. Like I get that people might not be familiar with how you lose Japanese citizenship by acquiring a new nationality, but to then go back and ask if they can keep both is just utterly stupid.

10. I’m sympathetic to the argument that Japan should allow dual nationality, but I don’t think her court case has any chance of success. The Constitutional arguments she raises are a bit of a stretch, and the Courts here almost never find legislation to violate the Constitution anyway, even in cases where the arguments seem much stronger.

11. > The government countered that allowing more than one nationality would lead to problems such as being required by other countries to perform military service and pay taxes, and produce international friction, and that the stipulation in the Nationality Law was reasonable.

    There are usually already provisions in place for military service, i.e. the person would be required to clarify their “loyalty.” See Ren Ho, for example.

    The taxes thing is nonsense, as that’s the responsibility of the individual anyway.

    It seems like there are far more disadvantages to disallowing dual nationality than there are advantages.

12. It’s almost draconian…

    It just sounds like some selfish possessive child who refuses to share “noooooooo! That’s my citizen and you can’t have them harrumph *crosses arms selfishly* “.

    I’d understand if they were skeptical of allowing it for countries that have mandatory military service such as South Korea but as far as I’m aware Canada isn’t going to be enacting conscription any time soon😅

    The whole idea that citizenship can be renounced is farcical. No one can tell you what you are or aren’t🤦‍♂️