I’m from France and got my Japanese passport back in 2018. My last business trip was in November 2019 (just before Covid) when I traveled through Europe visiting potential customers. I took the plane 10 times in 2 weeks.
During passport check I was set aside from the queue at two airports (UK and Italy). I had to briefly explain myself because I “obviously didn’t look Japanese”, and they let me go (took less than one minute).
I also had a very interesting chat in CDG in France with the officer there. He was critical of my decision of changing nationality because “I don’t look Japanese and will never be considered as a Japanese citizen”. I told him he didn’t look very French to me (he was black), and we both laughed about it.
Back in Japan the airport staff tried a couple of times to redirect me towards the re-entry line while I was waiting in the “Japanese passport” line, I just had to walk with my passport in hand to show I belonged there.
Overall no big deal.
I haven’t traveled since COVID, but got my passport back in 2013(2014?).
For what it’s worth I got engaged during the final step of the naturalization process so i went ahead and took my soon-to-be spouse’s surname and kept my katakana first name (which is a fairly common name both here & in English speaking countries)
Even though I don’t look remotely Asian or even “half” the check-in staff at domestic airports always switched to speaking to me in Japanese once they saw my passport.
As for presenting my passport abroad, I had a guy at the passport control in Brussels try to practice his Japanese with me!
I used to go to Hong Kong, Taiwan & Korea fairly often so after I naturalized I had to explain to their Immigration/passport control officers why I suddenly had a new name & passport. It only took a short conversation to clear everything up, no drama whatsoever.
However. I once got separated at Immigration on an ANA group tour to mainland China. Once I explained my situation (and showed my wedding pictures!) we all had a good laugh about it though!
Traveling with my Japanese spouse or solo trips with my child who has a Japanese passport has also been a non-issue.
2 comments
I’m from France and got my Japanese passport back in 2018. My last business trip was in November 2019 (just before Covid) when I traveled through Europe visiting potential customers. I took the plane 10 times in 2 weeks.
During passport check I was set aside from the queue at two airports (UK and Italy). I had to briefly explain myself because I “obviously didn’t look Japanese”, and they let me go (took less than one minute).
I also had a very interesting chat in CDG in France with the officer there. He was critical of my decision of changing nationality because “I don’t look Japanese and will never be considered as a Japanese citizen”. I told him he didn’t look very French to me (he was black), and we both laughed about it.
Back in Japan the airport staff tried a couple of times to redirect me towards the re-entry line while I was waiting in the “Japanese passport” line, I just had to walk with my passport in hand to show I belonged there.
Overall no big deal.
I haven’t traveled since COVID, but got my passport back in 2013(2014?).
For what it’s worth I got engaged during the final step of the naturalization process so i went ahead and took my soon-to-be spouse’s surname and kept my katakana first name (which is a fairly common name both here & in English speaking countries)
Even though I don’t look remotely Asian or even “half” the check-in staff at domestic airports always switched to speaking to me in Japanese once they saw my passport.
As for presenting my passport abroad, I had a guy at the passport control in Brussels try to practice his Japanese with me!
I used to go to Hong Kong, Taiwan & Korea fairly often so after I naturalized I had to explain to their Immigration/passport control officers why I suddenly had a new name & passport. It only took a short conversation to clear everything up, no drama whatsoever.
However. I once got separated at Immigration on an ANA group tour to mainland China. Once I explained my situation (and showed my wedding pictures!) we all had a good laugh about it though!
Traveling with my Japanese spouse or solo trips with my child who has a Japanese passport has also been a non-issue.