I recently read a post on here about someone asking about the risks about picking up a foreign citizenship while having a Japanese one. This reminded me about some confusion of my own that I had with the dual citizenship situation. My mother only has a Japanese citizenship but we all live here in the US and I was born here so thus my mother decided to go down the dual citizenship route for me.
From what I can tell from the Japan Ministry of Justice webpage, since I was born and therefore became a dual citizen after Jan 1, 1985 when the Nationality law became effective, and I’m 18 now (meaning I was a dual citizen before I turned 22), this means that as far as Japan is concerned I’d have until I am 22 to decide on which nation I want to keep my citizenship with.
Would this be correct? I just don’t want to be denied entry to Japan if I don’t choose countries in time or something. Not sure if that actually happens but that’s also something else I wanted to know. Do they “check” with me somehow to see if I still have my US citizenship? In reality what would they do if I kept both citizenships after I turned 22. It’s a really difficult decision to make
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/160tur6/born_into_dual_citizenship_usjapan/
4 comments
Someone with more energy will reply and give you a better and detailed answer, but you can keep both. Actually, this has been discussed extensively here, so you might want to search the subreddit and read everything.
Edit: I thought I was in /r/japanlife so try searching there
I don’t have much more energy than the other guy but you are legally and ethically ( I guess) supposed to choose at 22. However lots of people in your situation keep both secretly. You’re just supposed to say you are doing everything in your power to choose one. I think there’s some document to fill out and then just not do it. Don’t take it as that’s what I’m advising you to do bc it’s not the legal route. Make whatever choice you want go the legal route or take the chance and keep both. I mean probably no one will check unless they are just some super majime asshole. Lol
Wow literally I’m in the exact same situation
My mom registered me under her family in Japan but I was born in the US so I have dual citizenship. Just turned 22 a few weeks ago and I haven’t really done anything about it haha but my older siblings and cousins have “secretly” kept both without issues
Here is the best advice your gonna get on this….
Hire a lawyer or something similar that has experience with Japanese and Us laws and have them help you with this. Do NOT take random advice on the internet and build your future on that.