G.W. and the Constitution Convention, 1787

This year the a project called the Comparative Constitutions Project, which was seeded with grant money from Google Ideas, along with the University of Texas, the University of Chicago, and the University College London, developed a web tool called Constitute.

One of the purposes of constitute.org is to help people who draft constitutions refer to and cross-reference between the articles in the constitutions of other sovereign nations.

Constitute Project Logo

Constitute is a interactive digital archive that allows one to not only to read almost all of the constitutions of the world (over 175 constitutions have been digitized), but to compare and dissect them regarding what rights they offer and how they define the legislature, executive, and judicial powers of government.


Some, especially Americans whose Constitution is old and Japanese whose Constitution has never been amended, may think, "how many people outside of scholars need to reference the world's constitutions? It's not like constitutions are written often." Surprisingly, this is not true:

• Every year an average of five (5) new constitutions are written
• Every year an average of thirty (39) constitutions are amended or revised
• Since 1789, more than 900 constitutions have been written
• Only 50% of most constitutions last more than nineteen (19) years. Thomas Jefferson himself predicted in 1789 that a constitution "naturally expires at the end of 19 years". So far, he's been correct.

Of course, the Japanese Constitution is included. As the tool is only in English, you can only read and compare constitutions in the English language. For the modern Japanese Constitution, this is not much of a set back (although the Supreme Court of Japan considers the Japanese version, stamped by the Emperor and the Ministers of government, to be the canonical official version), due to the fact that the original was drafted with the heavy guidance of American occupied forces.

According to the Comparative Constitutions Project data, there are only three (3) constitutions so far that have been drafted with the influence of an occupying force:

• the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
• the Republic of Iraq,
• and of course: the State of Japan.

This November, the Arab Republic of Egypt should have the final draft of their new Constitution ready — too late to use this tool.

When the Americans were helping to draft the new post war Constitution, known as the SCAP Draft (formed from SWNCC-228: The Reform of the Japanese Governmental System), they did so in a record time for such an important document. According to an article in the Atlantic about the need for the U.S. to revise its Constitution:

When 24 military officers and civilians were given a single week to craft a constitution for occupied Japan in 1946, they turned to England. The Westminster-style parliament they installed in Tokyo, like its British forebear, has two houses. But unlike Congress, one is clearly more powerful than the other and can override the less powerful one during an impasse.

Two comments about this above paragraph:

1. The original American draft called for a unicameral, or one house, style parliament (which is interesting, because the U.S. Congress is bicameral, like the British/Westminster parliament). Unicameral parliaments are actually the more common form of parliament used by the states of the world. The Japanese insisted on a bicameral system — probably because the previous so-called Meiji Constitution was bicameral: the House of Representatives & the House of Peers. The change from unicameral to bicameral was the only major concession that the American GS made for Occupied Japan.
2. The Americans did not just "turn to England" to write the Japanese Constitution. The referenced and consulted the constitutions and legal founding documents from many other countries, not just Britain.
   
   Looking to overseas documents for reference is nothing new; for the constitution before that (The Constitution of the Empire of Japan aka the Meiji Constitution), the Japanese sent an overseas mission to Europe to study the documents over there. It was primarily from the German Empire and Prussia that Japan crafted their first constitution, although the constitutions of other European countries and America were studied.

Looking at the proposed amendments (日本国憲法改正草案 {Nihonkoku kempō kaisei sōan}) that the LDP has recently put forth (the additional rights, the provisions for emergencies, the requirement that the people obey the constitution), we can see that the LDP did not come up with many of these ideas on their own (although there are new and novel concepts not found in other constitutions); the Constitute tool shows that many of the new ideas being proposed for the constitution of Japan are actually already in the constitutions of other liberal, successful democracies in Europe and elsewhere.

CCP: investigating the sources and consequences of constitutional choices

Looking at the data analysis and rankings done at the Comparative Constitutions Project, we can see some interesting facts about the Japanese Constitution as to how it compares to other constitutions of the world:

When the Japanese Constitution was enacted

The current Japanese Constitution was created (1946) along with quite a few others right after World War Ⅱ, slightly before the constitutions of the German Federal Republic aka [West] Germany (1949) and Italy (1947). With respect to rights and other provisions such as the military, it's no surprise that these former Axis Power countries, learning the lessons of war and having new constitutions all drafted within a relatively close time period, have articles in them that resemble each other with respect to democracy, freedoms & rights, and the military. However, Japan is the only one who has not amended its Constitution: Italy has amended its constitution 15 times, and Germany has amended its constitution 58 times.

Histogram of newly enacted constitutions

The majority of constitutions that were enacted from 1988 to 1994 come from former Soviet bloc countries. The earliest constitution? United States (1789) The newest constitution? Syria (2012); soon to be Egypt (2013).

Scope and Length of the the Constitution of Japan

In the textbook "The Endurance of National Constitutions" (2009; Elkins, Ginsburg and Melton), it was found that when you dissected all the world's constitutions, you came up with about 92 major topics. When you make a graph of the percentage of the topics covered, you get a chart that looks something like this:



Japan has a coverage of 36%, or less than 34 topics. New Zealand has the lowest scope (26%) and Kenya has the highest at 81%. This doesn't mean that much of New Zealand's laws are ambiguous. It just means that New Zealand operates a lot on unwritten constitutional conventions (statutes, court decisions, letters patent, orders in council, etc) rather than using a supreme document above all others.

Additionally, many topics are irrelevant to other countries. For example, topics regarding constitutional monarchies (such as Japan) would be irrelevant for a country that was a republic.

For reference, the United States has 49% coverage.

Length of the Constitution

There is not necessarily a correspondence to the amount of topics covered and the length of a constitution, however:

Length does not correspond to coverage.

Japan's English language version of its Constitution is the tenth (10th) shortest constitution in the world, coming in at just under five thousand (4,998) words. Perfect lunchtime reading material. The shortest constitution? Jordan. Its constitution is 2,270 English words. New Zealand and Iceland's "constitutions" are just a little shorter than Japan's, weighing in at 4,736 and 4,089 words respectively.

The longest constitution in the world? That would be the Republic of India, whose 146,385 words (448 article in 22 parts, 12 schedules, and 118 amendments) is more than twice as long as the runner-up in length, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: a mere 66,263 words. To put that in perspective, there are 138,020 words [depending on the manuscript versions] in the Greek language New Testament.

The United States Constitution is 7,762 words.

Amount of Rights in the Constitutions

Chapter Ⅲ of the Japanese Constitution is titled "Rights and Duties of the People", and consists of thirty (30) articles. The CCP has looked through all the rights enumerated in different constitutions of the word and found 117 of them. How do all the countries rank?

CCP's 117 rights coverage

Japan is very close to the median: 47 rights. The United States has 35 rights defined in its constitution and amendments. Bolivia has the highest coverage at 88, and New Zealand has the least at zero. This doesn't mean New Zealand nationals don't have any rights; it means their rights are defined in other parts of the law as New Zealand's government is not defined top-down by one sole supreme document.

Just because one country has more rights doesn't mean all people consider that country to be more free. For example, the right to bear arms is one of the 117 rights. Only five (5) countries in the world spell out how its people are entitled to bear arms in its constitution: Guatemala, Haiti, Iran, Mexico, and the United States of America. On the other hand, 167 constitutions of the 189 listed talk about freedom of religion.

Executive & Legislative Power, and Judicial Independence

Amongst 189 countries, Japan's Constitution ranks as follows:

• For legislative power, there are 28 countries in the world with more legislative power than Japan. There are 28 countries with the same amount of legislative power as Japan, and there are 133 countries with less legislative power than Japan
• For executive power, there are 162 countries with more executive power than Japan. There are only nine (9) countries with less executive power than Japan.
  
  If the Japanese executive gains the power to declare a state of emergency (which is being proposed in the LDP amendment), then there will be 28 countries with less executive power than Japan.
• Eighty nine (89) countries have more judicial independence than Japan; Fifty seven (57) countries have less judicial independence.

Caveat: comparing the different branches of government is like comparing apples to oranges

These numeric evaluations of constitutional properties are of course the opinion of constitutional scholars and their methods of evaluation are open to debate.

---

Most people naturalize do so for very pragmatic reasons: to secure a permanent life in Japan for their family, for their finances, or for the quality of life. I think that very few people think about the legal meaning of becoming a national of another country of Japan. Conversely, people that have lived in Japan for what can be considered a lifetime (decades) yet choose to never become legally Japanese — usually stopping at permanent resident status — choose not to usually for identity/cultural loyalty reasons or "safety net" reasons (they want to retain the ability to be a national in their original countries), not because they have a discomfort with the government system.

However, the written signed oath a naturalization candidate makes to the Minister of Justice (法務大臣 {hōmu daijin}) — not the Emperor (天皇陛下 {Tennō Heika}), the Prime Minister (総理大臣 {Sōri-Daijin}), or anybody else — connects you to the legal concept of the sovereign State of Japan (日本国 {Nihon-koku}), and the oath that a naturalized citizen signs (宣誓書 {senseisho}) is an oath to the supreme/highest law of Japan, the Japanese Constitution, as well as the laws below it.

The Oath is a serious thing. I have read stories of not a few naturalized citizens that naturalized yet afterwards expressed surprise that the laws or Constitution of Japan were different from the laws of their home country (especially family law). Even if a Japanese national, natural-born or naturalized, is no longer living in the country of Japan, the laws of Japan may still apply to them and they may have to answer to them, depending on the circumstances.

Thus, even though there is no civics test for becoming Japanese, I encourage those interested in it to at least familiar themselves at least with the Japanese Constitution. Now there's a tool that allows one to easily browse it, looking for the sections that are important to you, and allowing one to compare sections to comparable sections in other countries. Comparing countries according to their constitutions is a bit of a wonky thing to do, but it can't hurt.

I would encourage anybody that is seriously considering naturalizing to another country to at least study the government and its laws, as from a legal perspective this is what you're connecting yourself to when you do it in most modern countries. Even if you never plan to get involved with the government or even vote. It's a shame that there's no "citizenship test" as part of the naturalization process for Japan, as there is for some other countries, like the United States.

One final word of caution about getting too excited about a Constitution. Just because something is written in a constitution doesn't mean it's going to or not going to affect your daily life. That all depends on the legislature and the laws it writes to implement a part of the constitution, the executive and how it enforces those laws, and the judicial in how it interprets the laws. Thus, living a long time in Japan and experiencing and observing how the rights and responsibilities affects Japanese nationals is also invaluable. Thus, the longer you live in Japan, the better you will be at making an informed decision about whether changing your nationality is right for you.

Newsweek International (Asia) September 11, 2006

[ This article appeared in Newsweek International (Asia) on September 11, 2006. This slightly revised version is posted at Japan Focus on November 8, 2006. It is being republished and slightly annotated here in accordance with Japan Focus' Creative Commons license. ]

By Christian Caryl and Kashiwagi Akiko

A few years ago, when Milton Minoru Takahashi first set out to improve conditions for Brazilian guest workers living in Nagoya, he thought he'd be telling Japanese about soccer, samba and Brazilian beaches. They were the sales hooks the Brazilian-Japanese Takahashi—who works for a nonprofit foundation that aids the 60,000 foreigners in Nagoya—thought could open locals' eyes to the beauties of Brazilian culture. But, he says, "the Japanese didn't want to hear about those things. They wanted to talk about noise and garbage"—problems allegedly caused by the Brazilian immigrants in their neighborhoods.

Takahashi now spends most of his time on more mundane tasks, trying to help his fellow Brazilians overcome the bewildering array of barriers to integration into Japanese society. But he still wonders why the Japanese government is largely indifferent to the problems facing foreigners. What would he like to see from Tokyo? "Action," says Takahashi. Something, anything, to acknowledge that there are immigrants in the country—and that they require recognition and support.

Takahashi's frustration underscores a critical disconnect in Japan—a split between what the country is becoming and what most Japanese want it to be. For mostly economic reasons, Japan must open itself to other ethnicities. Japan's population is not only aging rapidly, but starting to decline. By the year 2050, it is expected to fall from 128 million now to around 105 million. To keep the economy viable, experts say, the country must let in more immigrants—not just guest workers, but it must also allow more foreign-born workers and their families to become naturalized citizens. A government panel acknowledged that in a report this summer, while at the same time recommending that the foreign percentage of the total population not exceed 3 percent, roughly double what it is now.

Marutei TSURUNEN

Consciously or not, ordinary citizens and government bureaucrats still cling to the notion that Japanese society is a unique, homogeneous culture. There is a conspicuous lack of public debate about how this insular country should adjust to the reality that more immigrants are coming—and that those already here are changing Japan. "The government has no [comprehensive] immigration policy," says Tsurunen Marutei. Rather, the approach is piecemeal, with different agencies issuing often contradictory regulations. Tsurunen should know. He's a former Finn turned Japanese citizen and, with Renho, formerly of Taiwanese nationality, and Shinkun Haku, formerly of South Korean nationality, one of three naturalized members of the national Parliament, or Diet.

HAVENAAR Mike in Samurai Blue

Mike Havenaar (ハーフナー・マイク {HĀFUNĀ · Maiku}) is a professional soccer player. He has represented the JFA national team in international competition as a 194cm 86kg striker at 26 years of age. He has played for many clubs, but currently he's playing for Netherland's SBV Vitesse Arnhem as a forward.

“I really like Arnhem as a city, and it took just six months for me to feel at home here, but Japan is where my roots are,” Mike said to FIFA.com.

"At first I had trouble acclimatizing, but since then the Dutch side in me — which I had kind of forgotten — has really come to the fore. Today I feel great, just like at home actually."

He is also a naturalized Japanese national, however unlike many White naturalized people in Japan, there may be a good chance he would tell you that he couldn't tell you what it is like not to be Japanese. That is because he was born in Japan and was (passive tense) naturalized at the age of seven (7). Mike Havenaar is an example of the exception to the requirement that you must be an adult — by Japanese standards: twenty (20) years old — in order to naturalize. HAVENAAR Mike is an example of naturalizing together as an entire family simultaneously. All of them had Dutch nationality and were legally citizens of the Netherlands.

"I know it sounds strange, but my [Japanese] team-mates understood very well who I was, they listened to me and regarded me as one of their own. The same thing applies today, in the [Dutch] national side. I know that I’m different, but that doesn’t prevent me from being equal to everyone else."

HAVENAAR Mike, who prefers that his fans call him "Mike", was born in Hiroshima and his native language is (Hiroshima dialect) Japanese. HAVENAAR Mike is trilingual: he went to an international school as a child where he learned English. At home his parents spoke Dutch exclusively. In daily life, he speaks Japanese. He claims he thinks in Japanese and his mother tongue that he's most comfortable with is Japanese.

"When I was little, I spoke Dutch with my parents but Japanese with all of my friends. Initially I felt somewhat torn between the two countries but as I got older, my love for the country where I was born grew. When I had to make a decision about my nationality, there was never any doubt."

Contrary to popular rumor that says that all naturalized must have "kanji names", his legal Japanese name is entirely in カタカナ {katakana} (Japanese syllabet) and has no legal 当て字 {ateji}— foreign words transcribed and/or translated into 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms); the 中黒 {nakaguro} (middle dot: "·") separating the two names is not part of a legal Japanese name but is a punctuation of convenience so you can tell with foreign origin words where one word ends and another begins. Because China does not use 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet), his name is written as 哈維納爾 邁克 {HĀWÉINÀĔR Màikè} in the Chinese press.

Mike married a Japanese woman in 2011 and had his first daughter that same year (who will obviously be a natural born Japanese by either her father or mother's jus sanguinis lineage).

"As for life in general, I can say that I prefer Japanese food, it’s the best in the world! And the girls are prettier, smaller and slimmer…wait, that might not be a good thing to say. Dutch girls are very beautiful too! [laughs]"

HAVENAAR Nikki and the Grampus Eight

His brother, HAVENAAR Nikki (ハーフナー・ニッキ {HĀFUNĀ · Nikki}), is a "natural born" (as opposed to "naturalized") Japanese citizen, being he has never been anything but Japanese. Born in 1995, two years after his father naturalized in 1993, Nikki was a natural born Japanese by virtue of jus sanguinis: He derived his Japanese nationality by blood, or more correctly, by descent, from his born in the Netherlands but now Japanese national parents. Unlike his brother, he was born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture (愛知県名古屋市 {Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi}). At 197cm and 82kg and eighteen (18) years of age, he played for the Nagoya Grampus Eight in the J1 League as a defender starting in 2013.

"Like father, like son[s]": Dido HAVENAAR

His father, HAVENAAR Dido (ハーフナー・ディド {HĀFUNĀ · Dido}), was also a professional soccer player and was active in the J League as a goalkeeper then a coach. His name was originally written on rosters as "Dirk HAVENAAR" (『ディルク・ハーフナー』 {"Diruku · HĀFUNĀ"}) when he played for the Mazda SC (マツダサッカークラブ {MATSUDA Sakkā Kurabu}) — formerly known as 東洋工業 {Tōyō Kōgyō}— later to become the サンフレッチェ広島F.C {Sanfurecche Hiroshima efu.shī} (Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C) when the Japan Professional Football League aka the "J. League" was founded in 1993. The Chinese press renders and pronounces his legal 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) name as 哈维纳尔 迪多／哈維納爾 迪多 {HĀWÉINÀĔR Díduō / ㄏㄚ˙ㄨㄟ˙ㄋㄚ˙ㄦ˙ㄉㄧ˙ㄉㄨㄛ˙} in simplified/traditional Chinese, but this transliteration is not used in Japan.

HAVENAAR Dido immigrated to Japan with his wife (a former national heptathlon champion) at the age of 29 when soccer in Japan was just beginning to develop to professional and internationally competitive level. Originally only intending to stay for a short amount of time, the Havenaar family spent eight (8) years in Japan, having a daughter and a son born there, before deciding to naturalize their entire family.

limited space for a name of a seal

When HAVENAAR Dido first naturalized, it was erroneously reported by the press that he took the 当て字 {ateji} name/transcription 『浜名デレク』 {HAMANA Dereku} as his official Japanese name in the 官報 {kampō} (the Japanese Diet's Official Gazette). The Official Gazette lists former names — in 漢字 {kanji} (sinograms) or カタカナ {katakana} (syllabet) — but it does not list the name one chooses for their new Japanese identity. In fact, HAVENAAR Dido struggled for some time choosing a Japanese name for himself, as the Japanese language did not lend itself to a very accurate representation of his Dutch name. His 印鑑 {inkan} (registered seal) actually does have the relatively short two (2) character 当て字 {ateji} (foreign name transliterated to sinograms) of 『浜名』 {"Hamana"} on it — probably due to the length of his legal self-chosen 片仮名 {katakana} name — for making his impression on official documents.

Actually very health & good for you

Does HAVENAAR Dido like everything about the his adopted country? Apparently, like many ethnic Japanese, he can't stomach 納豆 {nattō} (fermented soybeans). Its smell and texture is such that it tends to polarize people: they either love it or hate it. He disliked it so much that he wagered the Serbian coach at the time, Драган Стојковић {Dragan STOJKOVIĆ} (ドラガン・ストイコビッチ {Doragan · SUTOIKOBITCHI}) aka "Pixy" {ﾋﾟｷｼｰ} (妖精 {yōsei}) — who loves the stuff — that if the Nagoya Grampus Eight won the championship, he'd eat it. They won. Thus, honoring his bet, after living in Japan for 25 years, he then ate Japanese 納豆 {nattō} (fermented soybeans) for the first time in his life. He commented that if you mix it with a lot of mustard — a common way to eat it — it wasn't so bad.

The HAVENAAR family is the first example of Japanese national Father-Son pro combo to have been active at the same time (Ｊリーガー {Jei Rīgā}— "J Leaguer") in its history. How much influence did the father have on his sons in becoming a soccer player? According to Mike, not much:

“It isn’t at all, really – my dad doesn’t play an important part in my career choices. We often talk about football, but I wouldn’t say he has a particular influence over me.”

They are not the first example of a father-son due in Japanese soccer however; that honor would belong to the Brazilian midfielder Arthur Antunes Coimbra Junior (アルトゥール・アントゥネス・コインブラ・ジュニオール {Arutūru · Antunesu · KOIMBURA · Juniōru}) aka "JUNIOR" and his legendary father, Arthur Antunes Coimbra aka "Zico" (ジーコ {JĪKO}). "Junior" played for サガン鳥栖 {Sagan Tosu} in 2003 in the J2 League while the senior father of the same name "Zico" was the coach for the Japan national team.

Zico / Coimbra Senior

By: Paul J. Scalise and Yuki Allyson Honjo *

* A note from the site administrator: This is a republication of an excellent working paper written by Dr. Scalise and Dr. Honjo on JapanReview.Net. It is re-printed with permission. Some of the text has been updated and revised from the original version to reflect changes over time in statistics, data, laws, links, and publications. Errors and mistakes in this edition are my fault, not the original authors. I am revising and republishing it here because I believe its issues (Japanese nationality laws compared to foreign countries) are pertinent to those interested in Japanese naturalization. Becoming legally Japanese would like to thank the editors of JapanReview.Net for their fascinating working paper and cooperation. Please note that this article is copyrighted by the original authors and does not fall under the umbrella of this site's copyright/license policy.

I became a Japanese citizen in March this year (2013). But as of the end of May, when I went on a trip to Hawaii, I had not yet relinquished my US citizenship. (In a sense, I believe I committed the act of relinquishment when I accepted Japanese citizenship. But I had not been to the US embassy to undertake the official relinquishment procedures that the US government requires.) And I still had a valid US passport, along with my newly issued Japanese passport.

I had learned that both the Japanese and US governments require their citizens to use their respective passports when reentering their respective countries. In other words, I had to use my old US passport at the airport in Honolulu.

I wondered if this would cause any complications. As it turned out, there was no serious problem. But there was one minor glitch: When I arrived in Honolulu, I went to the line for returning US citizens and presented my US passport to the immigration officer. He looked at it, but instead of handing it right back to me, he did a bit of tapping at his terminal (I suppose they always do that, though I hadn't noticed it on previous entries), and then he said, "Can I see your boarding pass stub?" Oh.

The name on my boarding pass was my new Japanese name. So I pulled out my Japanese passport and handed that to him along with the stub. And I nervously explained that I was was recently naturalized and was complying with the above "use your Japanese/US passport" rules.

To my relief, the officer was satisfied with my explanation. He said he just needed to fix some data, and he started tapping at his terminal again. After a minute or two, he handed me back my passports and stub, and I proceeded to the baggage claim area, picked up my bag, and exited without incident.

Though I don't know the details of the system, I presume that the immigration officer was looking at a list of that day's expected arrivals based on information provided by the airlines. And of course my US passport name wasn't on the list, since my ticket was under my Japanese name.

Not much of a story, but I thought I'd share it just for the record.

former Asahi Bank headquarters

The Tokyo District Court has determined that in the case of financial loans and extension of credit, yes, they can. In the case "Steve Herman v. Asahi Bank", the judge ruled that it was "reasonable" for a money lending institution to deny a loan to a foreigner, because they have right of abode in another country and could thus leave Japan easily, and foreign laws and jurisdiction might make it difficult if not impossible for a Japan-based bank to collect.

Steven Herman in Japan

In the year 2000, Steve Herman had lived in Japan for over ten (10) years and was forty (40) years old. He was president of the FCCJ for one year (1997~1998) and worked at TV Tokyo at the time. While it was not disclosed exactly, he hinted ("an income triple that of the average salary-man") that he had a much higher than average stable income — estimated by others to be in excess of ¥15,000,000/year. An American citizen, he did not have permanent residency at the time, but he was engaged to a Japanese national; he eventually married.

He attempted to purchase a condominium in the Yoyogi area of Shibuya, Tokyo (東京都渋谷区代々木 {Tōkyo-to Shibuya-ku Yoyogi}) using a real estate agent. The real estate agent took a down payment, and Steve Herman attempted to apply for a mortgage loan ¥68.5 million from Asahi Bank (あさひ銀行 {Asahi Ginkō}). The bank wouldn't accept his application.

Steven L. Herman

Steve Herman then filed suit for ¥11 million for the mental anguish due to the refusal:

"This is discriminatory treatment based on nationality and violates both the International Covenants on Human Rights and the Constitution, which spells equality under law."

Possible Prior Precedent?

Based on the Convention Steve Herman cited, perhaps he was inspired to file suit based on the successful application of the Convention in a case that occurred just prior to his loan denial.

The Ana Bortz Case: October 12, 1999

In June, 1998, Brazilian Ana Bortz (アナ・ボルツAna BORUTSU), 34 at the time and a reporter for a local Japanese branch of a Brazilian satellite television network (IPCTV) and a Japan resident for six (6) years, filed a lawsuit and won. In the Bortz case, the judge cited the UN Convention of the ICERD to which Japan was a signatory to, which defines illegal discrimination, in his summary. Ana Bortz is a Brazilian national married to a 『日系』 {"Nikkei"} Japanese-Brazilian in Japan.

Ana Bortz was refused service and asked to leave a jewelry store while shopping for a Brazil produced Hematita mineral based jewelry in Sakana-machi, Naka Ward, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture (静岡県浜松市中区肴町 {Shizuoka-ken Hamamatsu-shi Naka-ku Sakana-machi}) — a city known for its large Brazilian-of-Japanese-descent (『日系』 {"Nikkei"}) immigrant population. In 1998, over 10,000 of the registered foreigner population of the city was Brazilian. With a population of 570,000 people, this city had　at the time the largest population of Brazilians in the country.

One of the three shop co-operators initially present (a family run business: a father with his mother and younger sister) claimed that the Ana Bortz was acting unnaturally while looking at one of the store's display showcases containing two onyx necklaces in the back, so he asked her "Where are you from?" in English as she was leaving. She responded first in Japanese (「ブラジルからです。」 {"Burajiru kara desu."}) then in English when he seemed to fail to understand. In response to the English, 鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa} (46 years old) said "This store does not allow foreigners" in English repeatedly and asked her to leave.

Ana Bortz

When Ana Bortz protested, 鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa} pointed to a hand-made poster made by the older mother which said in Japanese:

「只今入場制限中　お客様が五人以上になりますと混雑しますので、その節はよろしくお願いします。尚外国人の入店は固くお断りします。」

"We are presently restricting admission to this store: no more than five customers at a time please. Also, foreigners are strictly forbidden."

鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa} then removed a Japanese language poster — printed and distributed to local stores by the Hamamatsu Central Police Department (浜松中央警察署 {Hamamatsu chūō keisatsu-sho}) — on the store's wall and put it in front of her face. The poster was titled 『出店荒らしにご用心！』 {"shutten arashi ni go-yōshin!"} ("Beware of store break-ins!"), which could be interpreted as insinuating that he believed she was "casing the establishment" in preparation for a burglary. When presented with the poster, Ana Bortz replied that she couldn't read 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms).

Things escalated. The employee threatened, in Japanese, to call the police. Ana Bortz told them "okay" and called her husband and the press. After much back and forth, Ana Bortz and the reporters learned that the motivation for the owners denying them was actually:

• The were having negotiation problems with a French distributor, and suspected at first that she might be French. 鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa} claimed he initially greeted her with the French greeting "Bonjour, madame" as well as "How are you?" and "señorita".
• The week before, one Japanese, and one who they claimed looked Brazilian — were caught on CCTV camera taking photographs of the narrow alley between the jewelry store and a game center (at that time in 1998) to its north. They said feared that someone might break into the store through the alley wall.

Eventually, a interpreter, two police officers, a security guard, and three observing journalist colleagues arrive at the scene. 鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa} left the scene to attend to an appointment with his child and left his mother (70) and younger sister to handle the police and reporters.

Ana Bortz demanded that the 70 year old mother, running the store alone after the owner had to leave to take his child to the hospital for an appointment, apologize to her in writing, as that is what she believed a store would do if she was Japanese. The mother then hastily wrote a written apology with nothing but the word "Sorry" in Japanese in a notebook. Ana Bortz insisted this was not enough, and demanded that the employee write more. She did, but she refused to remove the "no foreigners" hand-made poster she created, and then shook hands with Ana Bortz with the encouragement of the police. This was the final apology that she wrote:

「言葉が通じなくてごめんなさい。これしか言いようがありません。」

"Sorry there was a miscommunication. That's all I'm going to say about it.”

However, Ana Bortz refused to accept this revised apology because she believed it was not sincere nor an admission of racial discrimination, saying "She does not really seem sorry".

The mother operating the store at the time with the younger sister confirmed that indeed it wasn't sincere because she was being forced to write it was she was hoping that writing it would finally get everybody involved to just leave the store. She replied in Japanese:

「実は反省していません。頼まれているから書いているだけです。本当は、早く帰って欲しいのです。」

"In fact, I am not sorry. I only wrote it because I was asked to. All I really wanted was for you to leave."

They had been inside the small narrow 33m² store with a group of people for almost three hours.

The police then mediated and said it Ana Bortz couldn't force the employee to write an apology:

「これ以上はできない。」

"She can not do any more than this."

Ana Bortz and the group eventually left, but not before informing them she was going to sue. And she did, two months later.

The verdict

In October, 1999, the Shizuoka Prefecture Hamamatsu District Court agreed with the plaintiff Ana Bortz, with the judge finding the owners of the unregistered ㈲ {Y.K.}晴美堂貿易 {Seibidō bōeki} committed illegal discrimination (不当差別futō sabetsu) in the form of racial discrimination activity (人種差別行為jinshu sabetsu kōi) which constituted an illegal act (不法行為fuhō kōi) under Civil Code Article 709/710 (民法７０９／７１０条minhō 709 / 710-jō), and deliberately shoving the police poster in front of her constituted defamation/slander or insult and awarded her ¥1,500,000 plus 5% interest for a total of ¥1,550,000 which part of which was to be used to pay for litigation and lawyer expenses for her lawyer. Ana Bortz also asked for ¥452,000 for translation and interpretation fees, but this was denied.

Ruling Hamamatsu District Judge at the time, 宗哲朗 {SŌ Tetsurō}, used tort law to apply the international law domestically:

“Whether they have Japanese citizenship or not, discrimination based on race or skin color is clearly prohibited as racial discrimination under CERD. … This was an illegal act against an individual. … Ejecting the plaintiff from the store merely because she was a Brazilian was unfair. Defendant's (鈴木孝尚 {SUZUKI Takahisa}) actions — ejecting plaintiff either because she was Brazilian, or because she was not French — are acts of racial discrimination with respect to the Brazilian plaintiff."

Because the the judge used tort law to apply the international law domestically, it couldn't be appealed under Japanese law.

The judge, through his comments above, believed that the real reason Ana Bortz was being denied service was not because she was a foreigner and not a Japanese national/citizen, but because she was Brazilian (a particular nationality), which runs afoul of the international discrimination law.

Domestic International Treaties & the Japan Constitution

Steve Herman also cited the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in court. He and Bortz could do this because of Article 98, paragraph 2 of the Japanese Constitution:

第９８条
②日本国が締結した条約及び確立された国際法規は、これを誠実に遵守することを必要とすろ。

Article 98
(2) The treaties concluded by Japan and established laws of nations shall be faithfully observed.

Japan has been a member of the ICERD Convention since December of 1995, with the following limitations:

• Japan does not recognize all of the Article 4 measures dealing with hate speech, as this is incompatible with the Constitution of Japan (Article 21)'s guaranteed with qualification rights regarding speech, opinion, association, and assembly. Japan is not alone in rejecting or limiting the Convention's Article 4: eighteen (18) other countries (including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States) do not or will not proactively recognize the part of the treaty that limits freedom of expression.
• Japan does not recognize "competence" under Article 14, which is an individual international complaints mechanism. Japan is not an outlier here, as only 58 states have recognized it.

Although the judge 宗哲朗 {SŌ Tetsurō} did not explicitly mention it, bothJapan's Constitution, as well as the UN Convention, specifically exclude distinctions made on the basis of nationality/citizenship.

The first two paragraphs of Article 1 of that Convention — MoFA (外務省 {gaimushō}) has the full English version and Japanese version on its site — says:

1. … any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, [color], descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
   
   この条約において、「人種差別」とは、人種、皮膚の色、世系又は民族的若しくは種族的出身に基づくあらゆる区別、排除、制限又は優先であって、政治的、経済的、社会的、文化的その他のあらゆる公的生活の分野における平等の立場での人権及び基本的自由を認識し、享有し又は行使することを妨げ又は害する目的又は効果を有するものをいう。
   
   
2. This Convention shall not apply to distinctions, exclusions, restrictions or preferences made by a State Party to this Convention between citizens and non-citizens.
   
   この条約は、締約国が市民と市民でない者との間に設ける区別、排除、制限又は優先については、適用しない。

And Article 6 says:

• States Parties shall assure to everyone within their jurisdiction effective protection and remedies, through the competent national tribunals and other State institutions, against any acts of racial discrimination which violate his human rights and fundamental freedoms contrary to this Convention, as well as the right to seek from such tribunals just and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination.
  
  締約国は、自国の管轄の下にあるすべての者に対し、権限のある自国の裁判所及び他の国家機関を通じて、この条約に反して人権及び基本的自由を侵害するあらゆる人種差別の行為に対する効果的な保護及び救済措置を確保し、並びにその差別の結果として被ったあらゆる損害に対し、公正かつ適正な賠償又は救済を当該裁判所に求める権利を確保する。

CERD, General Recommendation 30: Discrimination against non-citizens, adds this about the interpretation of the above:

• Article 1, paragraph 2 [regarding distinctions between citizens and non-citizens], must be construed so as to avoid undermining the basic prohibition of discrimination; hence, it should not be interpreted to detract in any way from the rights and freedoms recognized and enunciated in particular in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…
• … some [human rights], such as the right to participate in elections, to vote and to stand for election, may be confined to citizens[/nationals].

While the Japanese Constitution similarly says:

第１４条
すべて国民†は、法の下に平等であつて、人種、信条、性別、社会的身分又は門地‡により、政治的、経済的又は社会的関係において、差別されない。

Article 14
All of the people† are equal under the law, and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic, or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin‡.

A few notes on these articles and the translations/interpretations to/from Japanese and English:

• † The Japanese Constitution talks about freedom from certain types of discrimination from the perspective of Japanese nationals in the Japanese canonical version — the English version often uses "people" where the Japanese version uses "[Japanese] national" (国民kokumin). In many constitutions "people" (especially capitalized), is usually legally defined to mean citizens/nationals who are legally linked to that country and its constitution.
• ‡ National/Ethnic/Family "origin" does not refer to one's current nationality/citizenship; in the Japanese version, "family origin" is written as 『門地』"monchi", which means your lineage.
  
  Interestingly, the early GHQ/SCAP drafts used the word "national origin" and used the Japanese phrase 国籍起源 {kokuseki kigen} (nationality origin) for the equivalent of article 14 (article 13 in the draft) and also had an additional clause saying that non-Japanese were equal under the law. Furthermore, the anti-discrimination clauses applied to "natural persons" (自然人 {shizenjin}); In Japanese law this phrase is used to refer to a person or individual, not in a "natural-born (not naturalized) citizen" sense. These provisions and phrases were removed from later revisions:
  
  第十三条
  一切ノ自然人ハ法律上平等ナリ政治的、経済的又ハ社会的関係ニ於テ人種、信条、性別、社会的身分、階級又ハ国籍起源ノ如何ニ依リ如何ナル差別的待遇モ許容又ハ黙認セラルルコト無カルヘシ　…
  Article XIII.
  All natural persons are equal before the law. No discrimination shall be authorized or tolerated in political, economic or social relations on account of race, creed, sex, social status, caste or national origin. …
  
  第十六条
  外国人ハ平等ニ法律ノ保護ヲ受クル権利ヲ有ス
  Article XVI.
  Aliens shall be entitled to the equal protection of law.

Judge 大竹たかし {ŌTAKE Takeshi} ruled:

“It is necessary for a bank to make a guideline for conditions for housing loans to make profits. … It is reasonable for the bank to turn down the request from a foreigner who is not certain to stay in Japan.”

Continuing, the judge added that even if the plaintiff had every intention of staying in Japan, it is always possible for a foreigner to be involuntarily separated (ex. lack of visa renewal or deportation or overseas family emergency) from Japan, making it difficult to continue to pay the principal or interest and difficult to collect the collateral, increasing the cost of business and risk for the loan:

"… even if [his property] were secured by person or thing in Japan, the expense, time and effort needed to manage and collect the debt would invariably be greater than if the debtor had remained in Japan."

Steve Herman probably did not help his case when he claimed that Asahi bank had

"a secret manual that forbids them from accepting an application from anyone who is not a citizen or resident of Japan",

because this provides support for the bank's argument that systematic discrimination is not done by race, ethnicity, or origin, but rather is formally done by legal nationality/citizenship, and it doesn't single out a particular nationality and applies to all non-nationals.

As for the "secret manual": most lending institutions, in Japan and overseas, both for structured and unstructured credit (ex. credit cards), keep the some or all of the criteria (depending on laws and regulations) for assessing debt risk a secret, both for proprietary business and competitive advantage reasons and for reasons of security: keeping the formulas and guidelines confidential hinders attempts to analyze the rules for weaknesses or loopholes that can be exploited. It is also a business advantange to keep ones business rules a secret from competing businesses.

The flight risk test applies to Japanese as well as non-Japanese

Asahi Bank further bolstered its case by claiming that it also refused to offer credit and loans to Japanese nationals who were legal mid to long term resident overseas. In other words, the criteria being used to evaluate the difficulty of collecting on a loan is not just based primarily on nationality, but whether or not the individual, being Japanese or non-Japanese, possessed easy means to flee the legal jurisdiction which provides easy domestic tools for debt collection. Being in a foreign country for a period greater that a short term visa usually requires a visa and a job and requires establishing roots such as a residence (rented or purchased).

It's true that both Japanese and non-Japanese might be able to obtain the means (some easier than others) to leave the legal jurisdiction of the loan was issued, but it is much easier for a foreigner or a Japanese national with a overseas resident visa and a "life there" to quickly leave Japan to hinder (intentionally or unintentionally) attempts to legally collect on a loan issued from Japan.

Other countries interpretations of CERD and discriminating against non-nationals for loans

There are some exceptions to the "can lending companies discriminate" opinions in other countries. For example, take the case of Ziad Ben Ahmed HABASSI versus Denmark in 1997. Habassi was a Tunisian national, born in 1972, and long-term resident of Århus, Denmark. He was married to a Danish citizen at the time and had a good credit record. He was applying for a loan for a car alarm. The loan application required him to state that he was a Danish citizen. Habassi, who had a permanent residence permit for Denmark, signed and submitted the application despite the requirement.

Yes, yet another "List Post"

So your dreams have come true and are close to realizing your dream of living in Japan permanently and becoming a national of the country! A country that speaks, reads, and writes Japanese...

Before you came to Japan, you may have had a few years of "college Japanese" under your belt, or you're starting with a blank slate. Either way, here are some things that me or another long-timer I know has either done or wished they had done from day one in Japan. A lot of these things were not immediately obvious when I first started learning Japanese and living in Japan over two decades ago. I hope they can help you.

This post is actually a re-post from a old now defunct blog I wrote called "Nippon: Until Death Do Us Part". It was a relatively popular post. I thought I'd never cover topics such as Japanese language learning on this blog/site, but as this article dealt with learning Japanese for long term life in Japan, and Japanese language is a skill you will probably need to pass the naturalization process as well as to live the remainder of your life in Japan as a citizen, I've decided to re-publish it with a few updates.

Disclaimer: If your goal for learning Japanese is to pick up enough for sightseeing or a six to twelve month university or corporate exchange program, you may not find the below of value. There are plenty of phrasebooks and "learn Japanese in 72 hour" programs which will teach you enough Japanese for greetings and salutations, ordering a beer, buying something, and indicating that you're lost. The steps I list below below are overkill for tourists, exchange students (unless you're studying Japanese!), and international businessmen.

These ten steps are for those wishing to pick up good habits by learning Japanese correctly, for long term life (i.e. naturalization) and work in Japan.

① Avoid ローマ字 {rōmaji} from day one

This should be your first textbook

It's very, very tempting to try to jump start in the beginning and rely on ローマ字 {rōmaji} ("Romanized Japanese," transliterated Japanese) for a few lessons. Because you may not be used to writing Japanese quickly, you'll be tempted to take notes in ローマ字 {rōmaji}. Don't.

Here's why: the longer you learn and live in ローマ字 {rōmaji}, the longer it will take to reverse bad pronunciation habits that you'll develop because of it. You won't be able to avoid it. If your native language uses Latin letters, your brain won't be able to help itself and will cluster and find patterns and rhythms and sounds associated with your native language, which is burned into your brain. Consider the following paragraph:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

If your native language is English, you probably were able to read the above relatively easily. Your brain is programmed to extract your language when you come across your alphabet without thinking. Likewise, it will be extremely difficult to reprogram your brain to break the rhythms, vowel and consonant associations associated with seeing English letters if you're reading Japanese with Latin letters.

To see the above example in reverse, try showing a Japanese person (not a language teacher) a long paragraph of Japanese text written in ローマ字 {rōmaji} and ask them to read it quickly and naturally. Show them the same paragraph written in 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) and ask them to try again.

there are at least 3 ways to transliterate Japanese syllabet

仮名kana		日本Nihon	訓令Kunrei	ヘボンHebon (Hepburn)
平仮名hiragana	片仮名katakana
し	シ	si	si	shi
じ	ジ	zi	zi	ji
ち	チ	ti	ti	chi
ぢ	ヂ	di	zi	ji
つ	ツ	tu	tu	tsu
づ	ヅ	du	zu	zu
ふ	フ	hu	hu	fu
しゃ	シャ	sya	sya	sha
じゃ	ジャ	zya	zya	ja
ちゃ	チャ	tya	tya	cha
ぢゃ	ヂャ	dya	zya	ja
しゅ	シュ	syu	syu	shu
じゅ	ジュ	zyu	zyu	ju
ちゅ	チュ	tyu	tyu	chu
ぢゅ	ヂュ	dyu	zyu	ju
しょ	ショ	syo	syo	sho
じょ	ジョ	zyo	zyo	jo
ちょ	チョ	tyo	tyo	cho
ぢょ	ヂョ	dyo	zyo	jo

You'll find that Japanese, whose brains are programmed from early childhood to read 仮名 {kana} and 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese Han characters), cannot read ローマ字 {rōmaji} naturally.

ローマ字 {Rōmaji} has little use in real world Japan outside of signs for tourists, decorative effect, in places for international communication, and in devices that are too primitive to support non-English alphabets (software made in the 20th century prior to Unicode). Because of this, you'll often catch misspellings, inconsistencies such as the transliteration — ヘボン式 {Hebon shiki} (Hepburn's dictionary transliteration style), 訓令式 {kunrei shiki} (government transliteration style), and other transliteration systems— being randomly mixed together, missing 長音符 {chōompu} (long vowel notation), and inconsistent 「ん {'n}」 transliteration all over Japan.

Why are there so many careless mistakes in ローマ字 {rōmaji} in Japan made by Japanese? Because the Japanese don't care. It's not the script they read.

When you purchase your first Japanese dictionary for foreigners, purchase one that uses 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) and 振り仮名 {furigana} (syllabet ruby annotations) exclusively. This will also teach you and improve the speed of your sorting skills, which is important for looking up information in everything from cell phone address books to finding music, books, and videos in collections.

② Focus on pronunciation from day one

Don't let your Japanese sound "romanized"

Japanese textbooks for English speakers don't pay enough attention to pronunciation. They usually teach English speakers:

• that the vowels are close to Spanish
• that the Japanese "r" is neither an English "r" nor an English "l"
• how to pronounce 「つ {tsu}」

And that's about it.

Textbooks assume you'll get the rest by listening and mimicking. Considering that a textbook knows it needs to reward its learners with quick practical language success, you can't blame them for being soft on perfect pronunciation. Compared to some Asian languages, an English speaker can be off-and-running and saying things which are mostly understood by native speakers on Day 1, while learners of other languages are struggling to get the alien tones, vowels, and consonants, which are nothing like English, mastered.

But if you learn Japanese without painstakingly practicing the pronunciation, you may end up developing bad habits that will take a long time to correct. There are a lot of subtleties that a properly trained — not a friend or language exchange partner — but rather a teacher who has been formally trained in TJFL, who can help you with:

• They can use mirrors and video to show when your tongue is in the wrong position, or when your mouth is too round (example: English speakers tend to round their mouths much more for the consonants "w" and "r" compared to Japanese. They also bite their bottom lip for "f," but the Japanese don't do this for the sound 「ふ {fu}」
• They can use recorded tape to show you how English speakers tend to "slide" their vowels at the end of words, whereas Japanese cut the air and delivery so the vowel ends sharply.
• They can teach you how to master air control through your nose and mouth for the consonant "g" as well as for the sound 「ん {n̄}」

Even with a professional teacher's help, you'll probably never sound native. But you can sound fluent, such that a Japanese stranger who is not used to hearing foreign-accented Japanese can understand your every word even if they're not used to your accent.

So ignore the books and the people that tell you that Japanese pronunciation is easy. It is easy from the aspect that there few consonants (10) and vowels (5) compared to other languages — and you can mangle the pronunciation pretty badly without completely losing comprehensibility. But why settle for comprehensible, when with a little extra effort at the beginning of your learning, you can sound good?

Here's three final reasons to learn how to pronounce things properly:

1. It's hard to sound cool or professional if you have bad pronunciation. There's nothing worse than trying to impress somebody and they can't help suppressing a smile because they've never heard an expression in heavily accented language before. If you're trying to impress, it's not just vocabulary. It's the delivery of that vocabulary.
2. It's hard to sound romantic if you have bad pronunciation. Imagine you've spent a week building up the courage to tell that special someone how you feel. Will they say "yes, me too!"? Will they say "no?" Or will they say "can you repeat that a little more slowly please?"
3. It's hard to express anger or displeasure if you have bad pronunciation. Swear words and threats don't sound scary if the object of your anger has to concentrate to understand you. You can ignore this advice if you're huge and physically intimidating. Most everybody else though wants to deliver their dissatisfaction in such a way that it doesn't cause snickering.

③ Annotate ALL words in your notes with pitch

This should be your second textbook.

This is also part of pronunciation, and the difference between somebody that sounds fluent/borderline native and somebody that sounds like a foreign learner. Japanese dialects do have a high and a low pitch for the syllables. They are not as critical to comprehension as tones are for languages like Chinese. Most Japanese can understand most of what a non-Japanese person says, through context, even if the pitch is completely messed up. If there's no context, though, they'll have to guess.

For example, if you say the single word はし {hashi} and you don't use it in a sentence, you need to use the right pitch so people know which はし {hashi} you're talking about: bridge (橋 {hashi}), chopsticks (箸 {hashi}), or edge (端 {hashi}).

Unfortunately, finding a Japanese learner's dictionary that annotates the high-low pitches on all the words is difficult. Japanese often use the 新明解日本語アクセント辞典 {shin meikai Nihongo akusento jiten} (New Clear Japanese Accent Dictionary). Even if you own an accent dictionary, make sure, in your notes, that you annotate every single word you write with the pitch. And make sure your teacher corrects you when you use incorrect pitch; less strict teachers — used to teaching casual students — will let pitch slide so long as it's comprehensible.

Also, the pitch patterns are different for different dialects — in particular, 関西弁 {Kansai-ben} (Western Japanese dialect). Learn the pitch for 共通語 {kyōtsūgo} (common dialect/language).

④ Don't just study with gimmicks or software/video

The James W. Heisig series: overrated

Repetition with both written and listening & repeating components works best. Don't just mentally read & answer the exercises in the textbook. Copy the questions longhand whole to a notebook along with the answers. Verbally say and hear everything you write.

There are tons of books with mnemonic systems. Maybe they work. Maybe they don't. But repetition does work. Nobody likes to hear that. Just like nobody likes to hear that the foolproof way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. Because it's hard work. Much like gimmick diets, you will meet people from all walks of life who swear by some learning gimmick.

You may have noticed that the people who succeed at losing weight using a gimmick diet succeed because they're somehow burning more calories than they're taking in, but they believe it's the gimmick part of the diet that's making them lose weight. People that succeed with the gimmick Japanese study systems are similar. When you look closely at what they're doing, it boils down to more Japanese and less English.

You should approach learning a foreign language the same way you would exercise and diet. The exercise is the endless repetition of writing of the same words and phrases — longhand — over and over. It's the endless oral repetition of your written notes. It's the endless repetition of reading the same phrases over and over. The diet part? That's refraining from using too much of your native language in Japan.

Finally, and this is a hard piece of advice because I live and work on the Internet and with computers: don't use software exclusively to study and learn. True, with modern operating systems you can display and input Japanese without having a firm grasp of the language. There are now countless instant translation systems. These are great tools for day to day work. But they won't help you once you get yourself into a situation where you're unplugged and off the grid.

Do use electronic devices for casual look up of words while on the street or working at the computer. Just don't use them as a substitute for good old fashioned hand writing, oral repetition, and exercises in homework and classroom work.

Proper foreign language learning uses all four language skills simultaneously to connect the abilities for the same word or concept together in the brain for better retention, recall and mastery

It's great that there are so many SRS flashcard and drills and vocabulary and quiz & test apps available for mobile devices these days. They make studying in one's spare time while riding on a train very easy.

However, too many people use these systems exclusively without doing enough studying that utilizes all four (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) abilities at once. This usually means their reading ends up being their strongest ability, and speaking & writing ends up being their weakest ability. This seems counterintuitive, as many people say that the reading and writing is the most difficult aspect of Japanese due to the thousands of characters.

⑤ Use the same tools that Japanese children use

In addition to the 英和・和英辞書 {eiwa·waei jisho} (English-Japanese · Japanese-English dictionary) and the 漢英字典 {kan'ei jiten} (Japanese charactery→English dictionary) which are useful for studying JFL, you should also purchase a 国語辞書 {kokugo jisho} (Japanese-Japanese dictionary) and a 漢字字典 {kanji jiten} (kanji character dictionary) for Japanese grade school students such as a 例解学習 {reikai gakushū} (illustrative learning) edition in order to study Japanese as your second language. The definitions and explanations in these books are written in a simplified manner. You won't need another dictionary to understand the dictionary, and it will keep your brain in "Japanese mode," which will help you speak and write in and think about Japanese in Japanese rather than go through internal translation and interpretation, which will make your thoughts sound unnatural and awkward. By reading Japanese definitions written for Japanese, it will also help you learn how to explain abstract concepts when you need to explain something to Japanese that you either don't know or can't recall the word for.

Workbooks for elementary school children are surprisingly good for those learning JSL.

When memorizing 漢字 {kanji}, utilize the huge amount of resources within Japan designed and written for Japanese schoolchildren. Don't dismiss these as simple workbooks for writing the same character over and over. There are those, but the good books will focus on total mastery of vocabulary, such as synonyms, antonyms, close-but-incorrect characters, 四字熟語 {yoji jukugo (four character compounds), 部首 {bushu} (character radicals), 書き順 {kakijun} (stroke order), and 画数 {kakusū} (character stroke count). Investing in this will give you the same library, sorting, and collating skills that your Japanese peers will have. Also, you can't use computer handwriting recognition systems unless your stroke order and count is correct or close.

⑥ Ignore those that discourage Japanese use

ｼﾞｬﾊﾟﾆｰｽﾞ ﾏｻﾞｰﾌｧｯｶｰ! ﾄﾞｩ ﾕｰ ｽﾋﾟｰｸ ｲｯﾄ?Japanīzu mazāfakkā! Du yū supīku itto?

While there are a few jobs in the Japanese marketplace where you may be the only non-native speaker of Japanese, chances are you'll have at least one or two coworkers who are also non-native Japanese speakers. They will want to speak English, and they will want you to speak English. Don't.

In the workplace, remember that Japanese is an asset and a job skill that differentiates you from other non-Japanese skilled workers. Don't worry about speaking English for the sake of the other non-Japanese. The vast majority of the non-Japanese you work with in Japan will be gone within five years. If you plan to be in Japan long term, it's your Japanese coworkers that you want to establish good communication channels with. Don't ever put yourself in a position where a Japanese worker is hesitant to talk to you because they are not sure if you'd understand their Japanese or they would understand your English.

There is a little bit of etiquette that one should know and practice:

• Japanese amongst Americans is only not unusual in Hawai'i

  Don't speak Japanese to Japanese when you're not in Japan if there's one or more persons that can't speak the language in the group. Especially strangers. Unless you're in Hawaii, which is practically the 48th prefecture of Japan. "When in Rome…"
• Don't use Japanese in such a way that it makes your non-Japanese coworkers, who are learning the language and are perhaps not as good as you, look bad. So if you're in a mixed work group of Japanese and non-Japanese and there are some language beginners or intermediates in your group, keep the language at a level so they can understand and participate when they're part of the conversation.

  Avoid the LCD trap by associating with people whose Japanese ≥ yours

  You may notice that Japanese will do this as well. If they are in a group of non-Japanese, they will modulate their language use (using simple Japanese or switching to English) to the person in the group with the lowest ability level.
  
  This is another reason why, for professional reasons, you should avoid being professionally associated with those who can't speak Japanese during work hours if part of your professional ability consists of your ability to communicate effectively to Japanese speakers.

• “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” 『己の欲せざるところを人に施すなかれ』 {｢ｵﾉﾚﾉﾎｯｻｻﾞﾙﾄｺﾛｦﾋﾄﾆﾎﾄﾞｺｽﾅｶﾚ｣}

  Never rate, judge or comment on another non-Japanese's Japanese level. Either to non-Japanese or Japanese. The only exceptions to this are when evaluating job candidates or if another person judges you. See: The Golden Rule.
• Likewise, never rate or judge another Japanese co-worker's English ability. See: The Golden Rule.
• Never expose a poser overseas. At social parties overseas your hosts will inevitably learn that you live in Japan and will introduce you to so-and-so which "lived in Japan" (one year or less on an school or work exchange program) and possibly studied Japanese in college for a few years and "is completely fluent / native." Most of the time, they can't speak it to save their lives. Padding one's résumé with a foreign language you can't really speak or understand is a timeless tradition. If that language is obscure in the United States (in other words, anything except for Spanish), all the better as the chance of being tested is minimal.
  

  [ I see a lot of LinkedIn resumes that list "business level" Japanese ]

  Your hosts will expect you to engage in some banter. The Résumé Padder is hoping that you are as much of a poser as they are. Let them off the hook easily. Say two or three short sentences that are ideally found in page one of a beginner's textbook ("My name is _____.", "Where do you live?", "Nice to meet you.") and abruptly end the conversation with something that will get a laugh from the people around you ("Wow! I didn't think I'd have an opportunity to speak Japanese here!"). The people around the two of you can't understand the Japanese anyway, so they can't tell the difference between a beginner and a lifer. Monolingual Americans can't handle more than 15 seconds of foreign language without feeling uncomfortable so it's unlikely they'll urge you to continue.
  
  If you "out" a language poser overseas, all you'll do is make other monolinguals in the group empathize with the exposed, and they'll think you're a jerk for humiliating the poser.
  
  If the poser attempts to leverage their phony skill into a Japanese related job, karma will catch up to them and they will be exposed.

If you're serious about your career in Japan at a Japanese company, then keep the foreign language to a minimum. There are three exceptions:

1. If your boss or superiors or customers that you're talking to can't speak Japanese
2. If your work environment has a 100% English in the workplace rule. But be careful and realize that many work environments have two environments: foreign language environment(s) and the "real" environment. The "real" environment is usually where the career people are that get promoted and where the management track is.
3. If the cost of making a mistake or losing a sale due to language miscommunication or nuance is greater than the benefit of Japanese. You can switch to your native language for critical problems and switch back to Japanese for non-critical situations when you're still learning the language.

Hanging out with foreigners too much isn't good for your psychological health

The time for bonding in your native language and bonding with your non-Japanese associates is after work.

This is an extremely difficult habit to form. The temptation to use the speed and accuracy of your native language, even for the little things, will be great. The stress of working in a foreign language will also be tough. It will be very tempting to use your native language to make your life easier.

One final reason to use Japanese as often as you can in the workplace: If people get used to hearing you speak English, they will get used to the cadence and tone and your English personality. Many people's personalities seem different when they speak in a foreign language. If people get used to you in English, it can be hard for them to get used to the "new you" when you switch languages. Your personality imprints on people in the first language they meet you in, so it can be jarring if you switch.

Also, if you switch into Japanese in the middle of conversation and your coworkers are not used to it because you haven't made it a habit, your coworkers may think you're switching because you think little of their English ability and could take offense.

⑦ Ignore the "international" Japanese

If you want to be truly international in Japan use Esperanto, not English

Japanese aren't usually taught that internationalization includes non-Japanese living in Japan and speaking Japanese. To them, internationalization is Japanese going to foreign countries and speaking foreign languages.

If you've been in Japan in a non-tourist setting, you've probably already met this person. They speak the best English in the company (or at least they tell everybody they do). They are always part of the welcoming committee. They are the unofficial interpreter and translator for all matters foreign.

They don't want you to speak Japanese. They don't want you to understand Japan too well. They've spent many years of their life marketing themselves as the official foreigner liaison (be it customers or internal staff). By speaking Japanese, you reduce their job responsibilities. It also reduces the amount of control they have over you in the workplace. If you use the international person, your world is completely filtered through them. Even if you don't report to this person, they indirectly control you because they control your access to your company's (Japanese) information, connections, and politics.

These people mean well. And they are useful. Just not to you.

⑧ Ignore people that tell you to use "real" Japanese

you won't need this if you really learn the language

Thanks to the success in the exportation of Japanese pop culture ("Cool Japan": J-Pop, アニメ {anime} (animé / Japanese animation/cartoons), 漫画 {manga} (Japanese comics), and the Internet) and a generation of 英会話 {eikaiwa} (English conversation) school employees that learned Japanese from their boyfriends and girlfriends at bars and nightclubs, there's a fad that encourages the speaking and writing using "the stuff they don't teach you in textbooks." They assume that because they can speak street or slang or casual Japanese, their Japanese is more "authentic" and thus better than those that use the です・ます {desu·masu} (formal/polite) style that's usually taught initially by textbooks. This "real Japanese" may substitute for small talk and pick up lines and appear to be clever banter at clubs, 飲み会 {nomikai} (events involving alcohol) and web bulletin boards, but it won't get you very far in the employed world. It's easy to copy/paste a phrase you found on a Japanese web BBS/forum, omit your 助詞 {joshi} (Japanese grammar helper particles), and spout crowd-pleasing catchphrases from popular shows.

Is there a time and place for casual Japanese? Of course there is. The problem is that most people go overboard.

Once your fundamentals are sound, learning the informal language is easy. It's much harder to speak in a business setting, acting and speaking in age appropriate — which I'm assuming is post-degree and over twenty (20) years old — language, and talk about complex topics.

Ignore the people that say you'll never have a need to learn 敬語 {keigo} (formal / polite / respect grammar / language) — even Japanese will tell you this — unless you want to limit your career options to jobs that will never require you to use it; those jobs are usually not very high paying and have limited room for career advancement.

Not needed to be taken seriously, even in Osaka

Don't worry about speaking in the local dialect, be it 関西弁 {Kansai-ben} (Western Japanese dialect) or something else. Unless you're a linguistic genius or a child, it's unlikely you'll ever speak Japanese without having an accent. And there's nothing wrong with that. You can speak fluently and still have an accent. The key to most Japanese dialects is not so much the vocabulary or modified grammar, but rather the subtleties of the accent. Speak in 共通語 {kyōtsūgo} (common dialect/language). Learning to understand the dialects is important, but not difficult. You'll see other non-Japanese speaking a little dialect here and there and getting some yuks and applause from the Japanese after hours while drinking. But this is more because seeing non-Japanese (especially non-Asian ones) speaking Japanese is still a novelty. Seeing a non-Japanese speaking dialect is even more of a novelty.

If you want to be taken seriously, speak in slang-less standard dialect.

⑨ Don't let negativity or "praise" discourage you

It will only take you a few weeks before you'll figure out that the phrase 「日本語、上手ですね」 {"Nihongo, jōzu desu ne"} ("[Your] Japanese's good, huh?") actually means "Thank you for trying to learn our language." They're just being polite and showing genuine surprise/gratitude that a non-native speaker would attempt to learn Japanese beyond tourist level.

Here are some other things you will encounter:

• You will encounter people who, the minute they sense you're struggling — or worse, you aren't struggling but your Japanese is accented or you made a slight grammar mistake so they assume you are — will switch the conversation into English.
• You will encounter situations where you're trying to be taken seriously but people either laugh at mistakes or nitpick at the grammar and ignore the content of your communication.
• You will encounter people who laser focus on the fact that you're speaking Japanese rather than the content of your Japanese.
• You will encounter countless Japanese in the service industry who, upon encountering accented Japanese, will either stare at you like a deer in headlights, or they will give an embarrassed smile and run and escalate to their manager.

People will tell you over and over that no matter how hard you try, you will never master the language. Worse, they'll change the topic and segue into how it's pointless to try because you'll "never be accepted" no matter what you do.

Don't let these people discourage you. You need a thick skin.

Let your teacher be your critic. Let the standardized tests be your critic. Let yourself be your critic. Ignore everybody else.

⑩ Be patient

Sometimes you'l feel that your Japanese can't improve or is getting worse

To go from knowing nothing in Japanese to fluency in Japanese, no matter your native language, takes the average person five (5) years. Some linguistically gifted people are going to do it in four years. Some slower people take six years. There are two conditions to the five year rule:

1. You must be exposed to Japanese from morning to night, and make an effort to use the language from morning to night. The reason you meet people in Japan who have lived in Japan for over a decade and can't speak the language is because they live in an English bubble:

   100% Japanese: work, play, home 5 years: nothing to fluency

   • They work for an company where they mostly speak English and deal with their coworkers in English all day long with only smatterings of Japanese.
   • They go home to a spouse and children that speak English.
   • They consume mostly English newspapers (including news about Japan in English) and English television (by listening to the second language option for movies and news). This information source is extremely abridged compared to Japanese sources.
   • They hang out in bars, venues, and restaurants that are popular with non-Japanese and the Japanese that like to hang out with non-Japanese (and speak English).
   • The primarily use the social features of the internet (social networks, video chat) in English.
   Thus, it is difficult to achieve the five year benchmark if your job requires you to speak English (example: English teaching or working for a foreign multinational) most of the day.

2. language exchange is inefficient and the quality of learning spotty

   You must formally study the language — ideally with a professional accredited native Japanese teacher — and subject yourself to formalized evaluation using standardized tests such as the 日本語能力試験 {Nihongo nōryoku shiken} (JLPT) and 日本漢字能力検定 {Nihon kanji nōryoku kentei} aka 漢検 {kanken} aka JKAT— for about 200 hours (not counting homework) a year.
   1. If you can afford it, you should use a private teacher rather than study in a group once your language level is past beginner.
   2. You should use a certified teacher who has passed the 日本語教育能力検定試験Nihongo kyōiku nōryoku kentei shiken (JLTCT). Unfortunately, these teachers are expensive and hard to find.
   3. Do not dictate the curriculum or the type or amount of homework or the teaching style. As teachers need the work and money, they are often under pressure to be seen as "flexible" rather than making sure how they are teaching is the most effective way. If your teacher is really a pro, he or she will know what's best for you.
   4. If you can't find or afford a pro with certification, try to get a teacher that is the same sex as you. This is harder than it sounds because more women go into foreign language teaching than men. The reason having a same sex teacher helps is because the language style is different for men and women. If you're dealing with a pro with certification, this is less of a problem as a pro will be more observant of sex and age related differences in language. If you have a choice between getting a teacher that is the same sex (and/or age range as you) and a certified teacher, though, always pick the certified teacher.

Despite doing this, you will discover that learning Japanese is not like exercising and dieting in that your graphed progress will not be linear or wavy. Rather, you will feel that you have been studying for months and day-to-day communication does not seem to improve and you'll be frustrated.

Suddenly, and inexplicably, you'll notice one day that a lot of communication challenges will be a lot easier. Encouraged by this, you'll study even more and more. However, you won't notice any improvement again for many months. Your ability will seem to flat line, despite your efforts and studying. Just when you're about to give up and you think your Japanese will never get any better, you'll suddenly notice that your ability again has mysteriously gotten much better, even though you haven't changed your studying habits or your communication situations.

JLPT N1 (Ｎ１級 {enu ikkyū}) is presumed to be "100% ability / proficiency"

Visualizing this on a graph, your language ability, if graphed on paper with the x-axis being time and y-axis indicating perceived ability, will probably look like a stretched staircase rather than a line or a curve.

The important thing is not to give up during those flat line periods and to keep studying.

So that's it. It's a long haul, but very rewarding. And Japanese fluency is the number one way to open doors for non-Japanese that wish to live long term in Japan.

My nationality giveaway: 名刺 {meishi}

One odd thing I've noticed on the English-speaking internet that talks about Japan is there's an awful lot of speculation out there as to how naturalized Japanese (especially those who don't "look Japanese", like me) are "perceived" by natural-born Japanese (especially those who "look Japanese").

Talking about Politics

The Japanese Diet building

I've always enjoyed talking about politicians and political parties in the politics, both foreign and domestic. I've participating actively in politics: I've volunteered for U.S. political parties and politicians during elections. Now that I have voting rights in Japan (and lost my voting right in the United States), I volunteer in Japanese politics.

Even before I naturalized, I had many conversations with like-minded (not everybody enjoys talking about politics, after all) people about Japanese politics. However, it was always from a theoretical point of view (since I couldn't actually vote). And when Japanese people ever initiated discussions about political matters, it was always from a superficial level: for example, the type of Japanese political analysis found in The New York Times or other western papers, which cover Japan from the perspective of a non-Japanese and thus focus on high level issues that have a foreign connection or interest.

These days, when I talk about Japanese about voting, it's from a much less theoretical point of view (since I have voted many times and am also eligible to volunteer and join Japanese political parties) and more from a "what is best for Japan and its future and my children who will live here?" The discussion is more pragmatic (and far more focused on domestic and economic policies) in that when we discuss the merits and demerits of a politician or party, focus is on what they can or are capable of doing, rather than just the abstract platform points of the party they represent.

Not needing to affirm or prove one's nationality

I actually do have a Japanese flag pin. But I don't wear it on my clothes or lapel.

If it comes up, I never say I'm just "Japanese" (日本人 {Nihon-jin}) because the word is overloaded with multiple meanings in both the English language and the Japanese language. It can mean the following things with respect to people, in order of assumption:

1. Japanese race
2. Japanese ethnicity
3. Japanese nationality

For most people, the word "Japanese" encompasses all three concepts at the same time until it's pointed out to them because they've simply not met or seen many people who are one or two out of the three. So when they ask about my name or my status in Japan, I usually use unambiguous terms to describe myself, such as 『日本国籍』 {"Nihon-kokuseki"} ("Japanese nationality") or ［アメリカ出身］帰化者 {[Amerika shusshin] kikasha} (Naturalized person [raised/born in America]).

Once I tell them this, it does seem to make an impression, because I've yet to notice anybody forget.

How do I know people don't forget? Because those who know are often quick to correct those who misidentify me. If somebody asks if or assumes that I'm "American", they'll say, "No, he's Japanese." Or if someone asks if I can speak Japanese, another will say, "yes he can. Actually, he's Japanese."

On one hand, this makes me a little uncomfortable because like the word "Japanese", "American" is also an word with multiple meanings; although I am no longer an American citizen or national, my background and upbringing is still American.

Gorham in his later years

William Reagan Gorham (ウィルアム・Ｒ・ゴーハム {Wiruamu · Āru · GŌHAMU}) was one of the first American tech entrepreneurs / engineers to move to Japan permanently and work with Japanese companies on technology, primarily automobile and aviation engines and technology.

He first came to Japan to introduce airmail (at first between Tokyo and Osaka) to Japan, bring two aircraft, three engines he constructed, and a pilot with him along with his family. He received an investment from 中央モータース㈱ {Chūō Mōtāsu ㏍} (Chūō Motors, Co.) However, demand for aircraft had cooled slightly after World War 1, and Chūō Motors dissolved, so he set up a company designing trucks with four American engineers he brought from the States to Kawasaki.

GPS system not included

He would be known for patenting a three wheeled motor vehicle — called the ゴルハム式三輪車 {Goruhamu-shiki sanrinsha} (Gorham-type 3-wheeled vehicle) — while under the employment as an engineering manager at 実用自動車㈱ {Jitsuyō Jidōsha ㏍} in Osaka, which would later become part of the modern Nissan car company that we know today. However, during the Great Depression which affected Japan around 1921, even that employer was not able to afford the salary he commanded.

Recruited away from his employer by 鮎川義介 {AIKAWA Yoshisuke}, a powerful entrepreneur and the first president of Nissan's 財閥 {zaibatsu} (financial clique), to work at 戸畑鋳物㈱ {Tobata Imono ㏍} (Tobata Castings Co.) as their chief engineer, he resigned from his current job to jump at the new opportunity. He would later travel to various places such as Hong Kong, India, Shanghai, and other countries in the South Sea. He would remain connected to 鮎川 {AIKAWA/AYUKAWA} for the next twenty eight (28) years in Japan, and Gorham would become an esteemed consultant, introducing the concept of America's "technological rationalism" to many famous Japanese technology companies which are now global brands.

A biography by 桂木洋二 {KATSURAGI Yōji}

Birth:

San Francisco, California; January 4, 1888

First visited Japan:

1901 (age 13) for three (3) months: 東京 {Tōkyō}, 横浜 {Yokohama}, 日光 {Nikkō}, 京都 {Kyōto}

Marriage:

December 4, 1911 (age 23) to née Hazel H. Hoch (until death; 39 years)

Children:

• William Hoch Gorham [Jr.] ("Billy") (b. 1915 in Oakland, California; d. 2003)
• Don Cyril Gorham (b. 1918 in Oakland, California; d. 2011)

Japan Immigration:

1918 (age 30)
Residences: 大阪 {Ōsaka}，九州 {Kyūshū}，東京 {Tōkyō}
Employment:

1. 実用自動車㈱ {Jitsuyō jidōsha ㏍} (Practical Automobile Manufacturing Co.)
2. 戸畑鋳物㈱ {Tobata imono ㏍} (Tobata Castings Co.)
3. 東亜電機工業㈱ {Tōa denki kōgyō ㏍} (Toa Electric Industry Co.)
4. 日産自動車㈱ {Nissan jidōsha ㏍} (Nissan Automobile Co.)
5. 日立精機㈱ {Hitachi Seiki ㏍} (Hitachi Precision Machine Tool Co.)
6. 富士自動車㈱ {Fuji jidōsha ㏍} (Fuji Motors Co.)
7. 工業相談㈱ {Kōgyō Sōdan ㏍} (Industrial Consulting Co.)

Japan Naturalization:

May 26, 1941 (age 53)
Japanese legal name: 合波武　克人 {GŌHAMU Katsundo

Death:

東京都目黒区長者丸 {Tōkyō-to Meguro-ku Chōjamaru}— presently 品川区上大崎二丁目 {Shinagawa-ku Kami-Ōsaki 2 chōme}, October 24, 1949 (age 61)

• Christian funeral at 銀座教会 {Ginza kyōkai} (Ginza Church)
• Buddhist wake at 銀座フェニックスプラザ {Ginza Fenikkusu Puraza} (Ginza Phoenix Plaza)
• buried at 多磨霊園 {Tama reien} (Tama Cemetery)

Gorham's story is unique in that like the previously discussed Russian naturalized Imperial Japanese subject Eliana Pavlova, who brought dance and ballet to Japan, he naturalized during the era of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan aka the Meiji Constitution, and he did so as a family unit with his American wife. There had been a few women who married Japanese men and took Japanese nationality during this era under principles of jus matrimoni (nationality acquisition through marriage, which was more commonly recognized/allowed back then), but the Mr. and Mrs. Gorham are the first known American couple to change their citizenship together.

William Gorham was the son of a San Francisco based engineer, and was building gasoline & kerosene engines and vehicles before he was a teenager in a backyard toolshed that he liked to call his production factory.

His father, William Joseph Gorham, was the Far East sales representative for Goodrich Rubber Company for over 20 years, selling / exporting tires to China and Japan. He would cross the Pacific Ocean annually. During his lifetime he would cross the Pacific 76 times by ship. His father would first take him to Japan during a business trip in his teenage years.

Modern designs are diesel, but Seagram still uses motorized pumps for firefighting

Gorham Engineering ("GECO") was established in San Francisco 1911, and it soon had one hundred (100) employees. It made not only gasoline & kerosene engines, but also boats for some of the engineers. Gorham "Senior"'s 23 year old son invented and patented a gasoline engine that worked as a fire-fighting pump. The patents associated with that invention were later acquired by Seagrave Fire Engine and Pump Company, which was in Columbus, California at the time.

Eventually GECO would open an additional manufacturing plant in Oakland, California, and expand to thousands of employees. Their hit products were their kerosene engines (diesel engines were still new and patented) and were shipped all across East Asia. Even in the 21st century, some of GECO's designs can be seen in far off places in Japan, like 北海道函館市 {Hokkaidō, Hakodate-shi} (Hakodate City, Hokkaido Prefecture).

When William R. Gorham emigrated from America to Japan, he was already a successful and wealthy engineer and entrepreneur.

Changing their citizenship

World War Ⅱ was being fought in Europe, and Japan, a member of the Axis Powers along with Germany and Italy, was under an oil, iron ore, and steel embargo from the "ABCD line". About 80% of the Japanese domestic economy depended on imported oil — not just for the military, but also for commercial production.

Yes, this movie is a Michael Bay love story.

The British, Americans, and other Europeans who were residents of the Empire of Japan were concerned about war starting from late 1939 to early 1940. After Japan had joined Germany and Italy in the Tripartite Pact, the United States Embassy in Tokyo started to advise its citizens that they should leave Japan in early December of 1941.

It is perhaps for this reason that Mr. and Mrs. Gorham decided to seek citizenship. Although the Empire of Japan was not deporting foreigners at the time (they would not do so or declare their intent to do so until after Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the war), William Gorham had devoted his life and career to Japan and improving Japanese engineering. According to his biography, he wanted to ensure that this would not be disrupted.

The Family

Hazel Gorham, who attended art school, was known for her 生け花 {ikebana} (Japanese floral arrangement), Japanese garden and pottery expertise in the West. She authored many of the original English books on the subjects of Japanese ceramics and flower arrangement. Additionally, she taught English privately in her home. Two of her students were royalty: HIH Princess Mikasa (崇仁親王妃百合子 {Takahito Shinnōhi Yuriko}) and HIH Princess Fushimi Tomoko (朝融王妃知子女王 {Asa akira Ōhi Tomoko Joō}). Mrs. Gorham vowed to stay with her husband in Japan and become Japanese with him. She regularly frequented both 青山学院大学 {Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku} (Aoyama Gakuin University) and 学習院 {Gakushūin} (Peers School) until her sixties.

"The Americans are here!"

They sent both of their children to a regular Japanese school, not international schools. When the family moved from Kyūshū to Tōkyō, they attempted to enroll their children, 9 and 11 years old at the time, into 成城学園 {Seijō Gakuen}. As they were the first non-"Oriental" foreigners to attend, the school principal was initially reluctant to admit them, but after learning that the American children could not only understand and speak Japanese fluently, they could read and write it, the school admitted them as the first children from the west with William Gorham's persuasion. During the militarization ramp-up period of Imperial Japan, the U.S. citizen Don Cyril took part in compulsory military training (being exempted/excluded only from "strategic planning conferences") from the Japanese perspective, with him planting red flags on the top of small sand dunes indicating where the "enemy" was!

Their oldest son, William "Billy" Gorham, did not seek citizenship, and left Japan after middle/intermediate school to attend high school in America. He would later graduate from Caltech. After his military deferment ran out in 1943, he became a Naval Agent and interrogated Japanese POWs and camp administration in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After the end of the war he was sent to Saipan to help with the surrender, then back to Tokyo to study the effects of U.S. bombing. Later in his career he'd end up working for Otis Elevator in the International Division, though he turned down two relocation opportunities to Japan because his immediate family couldn't come with him.

Don Cyril Gorham

Their second son, Don Cyril Gorham, also did not seek citizenship (he was an adult at the time and thus did not naturalize together with his family). He would graduate from Tokyo Imperial University (東京帝国大学 {Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku}) — now the University of Tokyo (東京大学 {Tōkyō Daigaku}) — with the Japanese equivalent of a B.A. (文学士 {bungaku-shi}) He wanted to stay on in Japan and go to graduate school and study Japanese literature, but his parents advised him to study for his Ph.D. in linguistics in America, where he would be more effective at improving Japan/U.S. relations. Don ended up working for the ONI after being commissioned into the U.S. Naval Reserve to fight against the Japanese Imperial military.

"The Great Japanese Empire"

Mr. and Mrs. Gorham applied for citizenship as a pair in May 17, 1941. Their application to naturalize and become Imperial Japanese subjects was officially approved and granted to both of them less than one week (!) later, on May 26, 1941. Although both Mr. and Mrs. Gorham were esteemed and accomplished and well known for their contributions to Japan, this lightning speed hints that the matters of bureaucracy and paperwork and red tape were quite different for Japanese naturalization back in those days.

William Gorham chose 当て字 {ateji} (sinogram characters corresponding to foreign sounds) for his family name:

• 合 {gō} refers to merger, or combining
• 波 {ha} refers to the waves (of the Pacific Ocean)
• 武 {mu} refers to martial affairs (symbolizing the Empire of Japan of the time)

In other words, he chose a name which symbolized a bridge between Japan and America, an attempt to harmonize the West and the East.

Published May 22, 1941

The New York Times deemed the event to be newsworthy and published. The newspaper article focused on the act of "renouncing" the U.S. citizenship more than the act of becoming a Japanese Subject (not citizen/national, as this did not happen under the modern Constitution). Why did they focus on the renouncing so much? Japan was actually an ally with the Entente Powers during World War Ⅰ, cooperating with the United States against Germany. It was right after the end of Japan's involvement with that Great War when Gorham first immigrated to Japan as an adult with his wife and two children (one of them an infant at the time). At the time, changing one's nationality to Japanese was perhaps considered treasonous to most Americans at the time.

Staying in Tokyo During the War

There are some that theorize that the Gorhams had to naturalize in order to avoid being deported after the US& UK declared war on the Empire of Japan and Japan delivering its 14-Part Message to the United States. However, they naturalized before the above events occurred. Additionally, many colleagues of Gorham, such as American Buddhist scholar Richard Gard, were guaranteed "safe custody" by Japanese in high positions. There are no records of any civilian Americans or British, who were foreign residents living in the four main islands of Japan, being forcibly deported or interned during World War 2.

The Empire of Japan would attack Pearl Harbor in Hawaii less than seven months later, leading the United States' Congress and the United Kingdom to declare war on the Empire of Japan and enter World War Ⅱ.

Meguro was firebombed, but not as much as east Tokyo

William and Hazel Gorham would stay in their Tokyo home throughout the war and did not evacuate to the countryside. Their home managed to survive the Tokyo air raid bombings, but all of the neighboring houses burned down. Their home almost burned down as well, but Mrs. Gorham protected the upstairs and Mr. Gorham protected the garage. They took in a neighboring Japanese family (including their cook and co-worker) whose home had burned down, and provided some canned foods to them as fresh food was scarce. During the War it was impossible for mail to be delivered or arrive from overseas, so Mr. and Mrs. Gorham were unaware of the state of their children. They were not even aware that they were part of the war effort with the U.S. military. Travel between homes was restricted for all Japanese, meaning they had few visitors during that period. Because of wartime restrictions on lights, their living room was very dimly lit and empty through the evenings.

After the War

Tommy Lee Jones doesn't resemble Douglas MacArthur.

After the war, Hazel Gorham would guide and help the housewives of the Occupational Forces that were in stationed in Japan, while spending much of her time in the summer in 箱根 {Hakone} escaping the summer heat while her husband commuted to work (by car, of course) from 大田区田園調布 {Ōta-ku Den'en chōfu} (Den'en-Chōfu, Ōta Ward). He would join her at the resort in 神奈川県 {Kanagawa-ken} Kanagawa Prefecture at the end of Friday and stay through the weekend.

He never missed a day of work, and he refused to visit doctors and was a believer in Christian Science. Although he needed glasses to read documents in his later years, he attempted to conceal this from his colleagues as much as possible.

William Gorham would eventually die of kidney atrophy and a liver related disease.

Death

A web site devoted to Tama Cemetery, Japan's first public cemetery (most people are cremated in Japan) writes this about William & Hazel Gorham:

+Roy Berman's English translation used with thanks & permission

Original	English Translation
Tama Cemetery fountain Husband & Wife together アメリカ合衆国サンフランシスコ近隣出身。 航空郵便システムを展開し飛行機製造会社を設立するのを目的とし、自分の技術を紹介し使用するために1918（Ｔ７）来日。 エンジン、飛行機、自動車、電話交換機、高速タレット旋盤などを設計、紹介した。また単発双葉飛行機を持ち込み、日本軍に売った。 後年キャノンのコンサルタントとなり、より効率的な生産システムの開発に尽力。 更に、国産精機（後の日立精機）のコンサルタントも務め、工作機械の設計にも携わった。４０年代始め、国際情勢が緊迫し始め、日本政府は外国人の追放を始めた。 ゴーハムは悩んだ末、41.5.26に日本に帰化した。日本名を『合波武　克人（ゴーハム・カツンド）』と名乗った。 　息子のDon C. Gorhamは帝国大学を４１年３月に卒業し、大学院で日本文学の研究を続けたいと思ったが、両親の希望によりアメリカに戻り、文学の博士号を取得、アメリカにいて日米の関係を改善するような仕事に就くよう命じた。 当時の外人に対する反感、治安警察（特高）などの状況を考えると、ゴーハム氏の決断がいかに悲壮なものであり、いかに日本を愛していたかということが分かる。 戦後、ゴーハムは日産自動車の役員となり、工業の分野で意欲を燃やし、会社のみならず日本復興の工業化や経済の発展に重要な中枢となり、後の高度成長期の先駆者的存在であった。志し半ばの４９病により没す。グランプリ出版から「日本人になったアメリカ人技師―ウィリアム・ゴーハム伝」等も出ている。 Gorham stone on far right ＊墓所には二基。右側が自然石に「ウィリアム・アール・ゴーハム / ヘーゼル・エッチ・ゴーハム」とカタカナで刻み、下に母国語と生没年が刻む。左側は洋型「斎藤家」。双方の墓石の間に墓誌が建つ。 ＊ウィリアムの妻はヘーゼル。1911年１２月 （Ｍ４４）グラマースクールの同級生であった。旧姓はホック。1918（Ｔ７）夫と来日し、後に夫と共に日本に帰化。太平洋戦争中も日本に留まった。 なお、二人の息子は米国軍人として日本と戦うことになったという。著書に『Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　＆　Ｏｒｉｅｎｔａｌ　Ｃｅｒａｍｉｃｓ』。	Born near San Francisco, in the United States of America. Came to Japan in 1918 (Taishō 7) to introduce and use his technology, with the goal of developing air mail systems and establishing an airplane manufacturing company. He designed and introduced engines, airplanes, automobiles, telephone switches and fast turret lathes. He also imported single engine biplanes and sold them to the Japanese military. In later years he became a consultant for Canon and assisted them by developing a more efficient production system. He also worked as a consultant for Kokusan Seiki (Later became Hitachi Seido Co., Ltd.) and was also involved in designing machine tools. In the early 40s the international situation began growing tense, and the Japanese government started deporting foreigners. After painful consideration, Gorham became a naturalized Japanese citizen on May 26, 1941. He took the Japanese name of 合波武 克人 {GŌHAMU Katsundo}. His son, Don C. Gorham, graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in March of 1941, and although he wanted to continue his study of Japanese literature in graduate school, in accordance with his parents wishes he instead returned to America, received his Doctoral degree in literature, and found a job related to the improvement of Japanese / American relations. Thinking of the circumstances of the antipathy towards gaijin at the time and the 特高 {tokkō} [Special Higher Police; comparable to the Nazi Gestapo], one can understand how heroic Gorham's decision was, and how much he must have loved Japan. Postwar, Gorham became an employee at Nissan Automobiles and challenged himself in the industrial field. He worked not just for the sake of his own company, but became a key figure in the rebirth of Japan's industrialization and economic development, and was a forerunner to the later high growth period. He died a premature death due to illness in 1949. Grand Prix press's, “The legend of William Gorham: the American Engineer who became Japanese” and others have appeared. * There are two graves on the plot. The natural stone on the right has "William R. Gorham / Hazel H. Gorham" etched in Japanese syllabet, and at the bottom their names and dates are etched in their native language. To the left is the western stone for the SAITŌ family. In between the two stones is an epitaph. * William's wife was Hazel. She was a classmate in grade school with him in December of 1911 (Meiji 44). Her maiden name was Hoch. She came to Japan with her husband in 1918 (Taishō 7), and naturalized to Japanese with her husband. She remained in Japan during the Pacific War. Her two sons fought against Japan in the U.S. military. She is the author of "Japanese & Oriental Ceramics".
＜「多磨霊園に眠る著名人たち」ＨＰ小松さん提供＞	<from Komatsu's "Celebrities who sleep at Tama Cemetery">

As one of the stated reasons for William Gorham to become Japanese was that he wanted to die and be buried in Japan, he was given a funeral at the Christian 銀座教会 {Ginza Kyōkai} (Ginza Church) where over six hundred people attended — and was one of the largest funeral ceremonies for a civilian after the War. His gravestone name was etched by his professional colleague and friend, 斎藤喜平 {SAITŌ Kihei} from 東亜電機工業㈱ {Tōa Denki Kōgyō ㏍} (Toa Electric Industry Co., Ltd.)

The living wife's in red.

As per Japanese tradition, only the husbands death date is carved on the joint tombstone. If the husband dies first, his name is etched and filled in with black ink and the still living wife's name would be etched in in red ink. When the wife passed away and finally "joined" her husband, the red ink would be replaced with black ink. This is to symbolize that the marriage is forever joined and they're always together, both in the mortal life and the afterlife.

They are buried, not cremated, as is the usual tradition in Japan. While only their pre-naturalization names — both in 片仮名katakana (syllabet) and the original アルファベットarufabetto (alphabet) — are written on the stone, their plot is located in the Japanese section of the cemetery, not the area reserved for foreigners.

A fan of 100% Katakana-ized Japanese

ｶﾅﾓｼﾞｶｲ {kanamojikai} pamphlet

There is a reason why William Gorham's 漢字 {kanji} naturalized name was not written on his tombstone and his and his wife's name was written in カタカナ {katakana} (syllabet [often, but not always, for foreign words]): William Gorham was an member and promoter of the ㈶カナモジカイ {kana moji kai} [sic] (Japanese syllabet letter association), a non-profit foundation, formed in 1920, now currently under the jurisdiction of MEXT. He would create and distribute advocacy pamphlets on his own. This foundation promoted:

• writing Japanese horizontally, left-to-right, top-to-bottom
• writing Japanese in only カタカナ {katakana} ([angular] syllabet)

Prior to postwar educational reform in Japan, the Japanese language used almost 10,000 Han sinograms and newspapers used about 5,000. While William Gorham was proficient in the Japanese language of the era, he did not read and write it very well. Gorham, an industrialist, believed that the invention of the typewriter and technology necessitated the use of a 50 character syllabet, and that there were too many characters to learn during schooling.

What made kanji digital universally

Japan did modernize and standardize its spoken and written language after the War, greatly reducing the amount of characters learned, as well as simplifying the ideographs. Postwar Japanese population literacy rate today is around 99%. It would not be until the 21st century when most technology worldwide ("globalized" and "internationalized" software) could input, process, and display Japanese — horizontally or vertically — without customization.

I discovered an old scanned version of the informational pamphlet that is distributed to people who are interested in naturalization to Japan. In a previous post, I analyzed the pamphlet I got, which was color and had "friendlier graphics". An OCR converted version of the original Japanese pamphlet, as well as a English translation, is available on this site's Documentation page.

The older pamphlet is very similar, except it:

• is not in color
• uses a real photograph for the front cover
• is more formal looking

The old document is titled 『日本へ帰化するために』 {"Nihon e kika suru tame ni"} ("For the purpose of naturalizing to Japan"), is sub titled 『申請手続きについて』 {"shinsei tetsuzuki nitsuite"} ("regarding the application procedures") and is six pages made from a folded pamphlet.

Here are the scanned pages:

A folded-page pamphlet of six (6) pages summarizing the procedures

The front page of the pamphlet is the most interesting to me, however, because it contains a sentence that doesn't exist on the new pamphlet:

※このパンフレットは、ビデオの内容をまとめたものです。
ビデオとあわせてあわせて御利用下さい。

Translated, this means:

* This pamphlet is a summary of the contents of the video
Please use it with the video.

In other words, once upon a time you received a video (VHS? Beta? DVD?) along with this pamphlet. Either that, or you watched a video on the premises of the 法務局国籍課 {hōmukyoku kokusekika} (Legal Affairs Bureau Nationality Section).

If there is a video, I will try to get a copy of it and transfer it to this site's YouTube channel, which was just started this year.

---

Once you indicate that you're serious about naturalizing during your first interview or visit and have a formal interview with a case worker after scheduling an appointment, you will receive a much more thorough booklet spanning tens of pages entitled 『帰化許可申請のてびき』 {kika kyoka shinsei no tebiki} (Naturalization Permission Application Guidance), which explains most of the forms and the proper way to fill them out.

Non-AFIS biometric systems record features, not the whole fingerprint

Yes they can be, but it is not required except for employment in certain specialized professions. Not all non-Japanese are fingerprinted either:

• Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者; SPRs)
• those under sixteen (16) years old
• and overseas VIPs (anybody using a "Diplomat" or "Official" passport to enter the country)

are also exempt.

The origins of fingerprinting foreign residents in East Asia

For a FBI background check

When I first came to Japan in 1993, old-school ink-roll fingerprints of all ten fingers at the local Ward Office was the norm and the law. As part of the process of receiving one's Alien Registration Card (外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho}; ARC), non-Japanese would press all ten of their fingers onto a specialized black ink pad especially for fingerprints and do a "full roll" (nail to nail) in ten boxes on a piece of paper.

After this was done, your ten prints (provided you still have all ten fingers!) would be stored, on plain paper with ink, at your local 区役所／市役所 {kuyakusho/shiyakusho} (Ward Office/City Hall) as unlike the current 在留カード {zairyū kādo} (Residence Card), the records for alien residents in Japan were kept with local governments, not centrally stored at the national level.

Then, we were encouraged to introduce ourselves to the police officers on duty at the local 交番 {kōban} ("police box"; mini police station) so they would know us. The officers noted the information about our addresses in a separate local log. This step, by the way, was recommended but optional and not required by law.

alien registration fingerprinting ended in 1999

Your issued ARC would then have your right index finger print in the bottom right hand corner.

The joke back then was that if you were going to commit a crime, remember to only use your other nine fingers.

But actually, many identity cards around the world have a fingerprint on the card, and the size and placement of a fingerprint on an identity card is standardized by ICAO 9303, the same organization that standardizes the security features on passports and other international travel documents.

The print is neither useful for law enforcement (which would ideally need all ten fingers and the "full roll" from nail-to-nail rather than the smaller window of the print in the center) nor is it usually useful as a substitute for a signature or bio-identification for daily use as it is not digital and it takes training in order to learn how to compare fingerprints — something that only a select few in fields related to law enforcement have. The lone fingerprint is actually there to make forgery & alteration of the card more difficult (one would have to change the fingerprint area as well as the photo area); at the time, a fingerprint was considered to be a more "universal" form of uniqueness — and more reliable — than a signature.

Comparisons to other countries' foreigner identification cards

fingerprinting aliens since 1977

2010 U.S. cards still fingerprint

Japan was following the lead of other countries (in particular, the United States) and used the forgery/tamper guards technology they used in they Permanent Resident Cards (aka "Green Cards").

An interesting contrast is how the United States system is that the cards they issue with fingerprints are issued only to United States non-citizens that are Permanent Residents.

In the United States, you would get a card with a fingerprint after obtaining Permanent Resident Status, whereas in Japan your fingerprint would be removed from your identification card upon becoming a permanent resident!

thumbprint on back; foreigners cards are red/pink

Brazil collects the fingerprints of not just foreign residents in its country, but of its nationals/citizens as well, and stores the fingerprints in a central database as well as electronically on an ID Card (which is issued to Brazilian nationals as well as foreign residents) linked by a 2D barcode. All ten fingerprints are also stored inside Brazilian e-passport RFID contactless chip for biometric identification. Not carrying the ID Card is not illegal, but Brazilian police can escort anybody to a police station for a digital background check. Also, the ID card is used for so many tasks in day to day life that not carrying one can be inconvenient.

The origins of the abolition of fingerprinting foreign residents in Asia

In Japan, some non-Japanese complained about fingerprints because they believed that in their home countries, the practice of fingerprinting was only done for criminals.

Starting during the eighties, Koreans (both South and North) and other large foreign resident communities of Japan such as Brazilians began protesting by refusing to have their fingerprints for mandatory registration as required by law. These legal aliens — of whom the majority were 3rd generation Koreans in Japan, believed that the similarity to South Korea's fingerprinting of foreign residents meant that they were being suspected of being North Korean enemy agents.

Toshiki KAIFU inside the Japanese Diet

The Prime Minister of Japan at that time, 海部俊樹 {KAIFU Toshiki}, visited South Korea in 1991 and later agreed to eliminate the fingerprint requirement for Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者tokubetsu eijūsha; SPR) by January of 1993.

Next, they exempted regular Permanent Residents (永住者 {eijūsha}; PR). However, unlike Special Permanent Residents, a Permanent Resident was always a one time a non-Permanent Resident, meaning your fingerprint was already printed on your identification card. Even if you became a permanent resident, you'd have to wait until your card expired and you received a fresh one that contained neither a fingerprint nor your employer information nor a SoR expiration date printed on the front. Your ten fingerprints, however, would be removed from your file, even though your one left index finger remaining on your personal card.

Eventually, they exempted everybody from fingerprinting as part of the alien registration process in 1999.

A few years afterwards, in 2003, the South Korean Minister of Justice began to have concerns about its country's fingerprinting process for foreigners; it abolished its system in 2004. However, for the purposes of terrorism prevention, they reinstated the fingerprinting of all foreigners at ports of entry in 2012.

The origins of digital fingerprinting at border control: 9/11

U.S. terminals are flexible regarding finger placement

After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11th, 2001, America reformed and tightened its immigration checks at all ports of entry. One of the creations to come out of this was the US-VISIT system, a digital ink-less fingerprint scanning system (that also takes a face photo) that records and compares against a watch-list database of terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants in a few seconds. Although not in real time, the ten prints are then compared to a FBI list of criminals days later.

The system was initially an index finger system similar to what Japan currently uses, but they upgraded the system to all ten fingers (a three step scanning process using "slap fingerprint scanning") in 2009.

All non-U.S. citizens (including U.S. permanent residents) are required to use the US-VISIT system, with the following exceptions:

• Canadian and Mexican nationals entering from North American continent land borders
• children 13 years of age and younger and seniors 80 years and older
• diplomats and other special state-level personal and state formally invited guests

You don't have to pucker your lips for the camera

Japan soon followed America (November 20, 2007) with its own system, called J-VIS {ｼﾞｪｲﾋﾞｽ}, which is deployed in 27 of Japan's international airports. Japan was the second country in the world after America to deploy such a system. J-VIS (pronounced and sometimes spelled as "Ｊ−ＢＩＳ {Jei-bisu}") is similar to US-VISIT in that there is a camera (surrounded by a mirror so you can align your face) and an optical scanner that scans your two index fingers. The Japanese system compared to an initial database of 14,000 people from a ICPO ("Interpol") and a domestic list of people who had been deported and/or excluded from entry from Japan in the past of around 80,000 people.

All non-Japanese nationals (including permanent residents) are required to use the J-VIS system to enter (but not exit) Japan, with the following exceptions:

• Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha})
• children 15 years of age and younger
• diplomats and other special state-level personal and state formally invited guests

Busted trying to fool Japanese immigration

Soon after its introduction, it was thought that the biometric machines of that time could be fooled with the use of false fingerprints (or by mutilating one's fingers). Additionally, some have tried to obtain false Japanese passports to avoid the fingerprinting requirements. In response, the machines were upgraded and immigration manual examination techniques were improved. Additionally, it is very difficult to forge a e-Passport (biometric passport), which contains a digitally encrypted/signed contact-less chip containing the passport's Page One details. As Japan's e-Passports were introduced in March 2006, all the old passports that don't contain this chip will have expired by 2016 (passports have a maximum validity of ten years), and it will be difficult for people to use false passports.

The old passports without chips will only be circulation for a few more years

Although many e-passports contain fingerprint data, Japan's passport chip currently only contain the digitized color passport photo for biometric identification.

People are caught and arrested for trying to circumvent the fingerprint biometric identification process every year.

Starting in August 2010, South Korea began implementing its own fingerprint scanning system for much of the same reasons that Japan uses it for: to prevent those forced to leave Korea from re-entering using a different passport (dual nationals) or via another form of changing identity.

Similar to both the United States and Japan:

• All non-nationals (including those foreign nationals with permanent resident status) must submit to biometric identification or be refused entry into the country
• Minors under the age of 18 are exempt from the process
• Diplomats and other special governmental level VIPs are exempt

The Republic of Korea estimated that approximately 2,000 people per year attempt to enter its country using changed/falsified papers/identities. It completed implementation in 2012.

Why do they do just two fingerprints and not all ten like the United States?

The reason they don't fingerprint all ten fingers is because they digital prints they take at the CIQ airport "waiting hall" area is because the scanned actually not currently compared to domestic law enforcement fingerprint records of criminals. In Japan, the biometric identification terminals at ports are used for two reasons:

• minor use: to compare against a small list of known international criminals and terrorists
• major use: to prevent a common immigration fraud technique called "double dipping" to prevent those who have been deported or refused entry from circumventing their exclusion order.

They do not do fingerprint scans for either Japanese nationals or Special Permanent Residents not because they don't believe that Japanese commit crime, but rather because Japanese nationals (natural born and naturalized) can't commit immigration fraud: they have the unconditional/unrevokable "right of abode" in Japan. Additionally, Special Permanent Residents, unlike all other types of foreign residents in Japan (including regular Permanent Residents), can't be deported except for national security reasons and high crimes like treason.

Additionally, how fingerprints are used and matched for biometric identification

The combination of digital photograph and fingerprints

The United States, Japan, and South Korea all take digital photographs as part of the biometric identification process, however, these photographs are not automatically verified against databases (yet). They are manually verified by the immigration inspectors by comparing them on the screen with the digital photograph stored in the passport's chip and/or the human in front of them.

What is "Double Dipping"?

Asian "double-dipping": in polite/formal (family/close friends excepted) company, use the opposite end of chopsticks (or a dedicated pair of serving chopsticks) to partake from a shared dish.

Double Dipping is an immigration fraud technique where an alien that has been deported, refused entrance into a country and sent home to the country of their nationality for a set exclusion period, does one of the following scams:

• legally changes their name (or uses legal or unofficial aliases) in their home country and then replaces their passport so the country can't correlate the new name with its immigration records that have dates associated with the old name.
• uses transliteration ambiguities between their name's native script and Latin/roman alphabet to create different versions of their name
• uses a separate passport with a different nationality (by having multiple nationalities), optionally with a different name but not necessary, so the country can't correlate the new identity (name + country + passport number) with the old identity on file.

"Double dipping" is slang that comes from the (considered unsanitary by many) act of taking a chip or other hors d'œuvre, dipping into a common shared sauce etc., taking a partial bite, then re-dipping that same piece of food that has already come in contact with your mouth into the same or another common-use liquid.

What is a "Visa Run"?

The stamp used with "visa runs"

A visa run is leaving the country before their Temporary Visitor (短期滞在 {tanki taizai}) Landing Permission (上陸許可 {jōriku kyoka}) Status (在留資格 {zairyū shikaku}; SoR) permission expires without properly renewing (because they're ineligible for renewal) and returning very soon to effectively reset the validity period of their "tourist visa", effectively turning it into a mid- to long-term "resident visa".

Whether or not a "visa run" is considered permissible or not depends on the judgement of the immigration officer: if they believe that the visa run is being done to circumvent the need to get a proper visa (for work or residence), they will most likely be denied entrance to Japan, detained until the first flight is available, then sent to the country of their nationality — usually at the visitor's expense.

"Visa Runs" were more common in 20th century, but they are much harder to get away with in the 21st century now that all countries' passports have a machine readable zone on the first page. The MRZ is printed in a font that is easily and readable by OCR technology, allows for speedy (even if there's a long queue) and accurate (no manual entry human operator input errors or typos of foreign names) single scan entry of all the pertinent details into a immigration computer database.

This means that the immigration computer keeps detailed entrance and exit dates in and out of Japan accurately associated with a particular passport, and the computer assists the inspecting officer by automatically alerting the officer on their computer monitor is the entrance/exit pattern to Japan looks like a "visa run" pattern. This eliminates the need to flip through the pages of the passport inspecting and comparing dates — a difficult an error-prone process.

In fact, these accurate digital records of your entrances and exits to Japan are available for self-examination for ¥300 and this official record is useful for completing your paperwork for naturalizing regarding your time in Japan.

The slang "visa run" was originally believed to have popularized by expats from Thailand, as their landing permissions were often for short periods (30 days or less) and it is a short a cheap day trip by bus from Bangkok to Cambodia and back.

For foreigners in Japan, the most common country to attempt a visa run with is South Korea, as it's usually both the closest and cheapest (air fare) from Japan.

Fingerprinting: not just for crime solving & prevention anymore

As an American in the nineties, I was already quite used to having my fingerprints "checked", so this was not a big deal to me:

• I was fingerprinted in order to work as a substitute teacher in public schools in the state of Virginia; to check to see if I had a criminal record or if I was a sex offender
• I was fingerprinted (and had to take a drug test) to work in finance on Wall Street in New York City. Funny story: they said that a history of financial crimes (embezzlement, theft, etc) would disqualify me, but other crimes would be evaluated case-by-case. I always wondered if murder was okay.
• I was fingerprinted by the U.S. government to work with sensitive classified information.

Of course, unlike being arrested where you can't "opt out" of being fingerprinted, I could have "opted out" of the fingerprinting, but "opting out" and "staying employed" at the same time was not an option. To choose not to submit to fingerprinting would mean having to settle (often for a less prestigious and less paying) form of employment.

Many American banks now require a thumbprint instead of a signature in one attempts to cash a cheque at a bank if they don't have an account at, as they haven't been verified or vetted.

Some parents in some American communities voluntarily register their children's fingerprints with law enforcement as a safety measure; if the child should go missing for whatever reason, the fingerprints on file will help law enforcement track and find the child.

A more artistic and less practical form of children's fingerprinting

Biometric identification fingerprints at the border for Expedited Immigration Clearance and Convenience

Everybody in the 21st century has this feature

In addition to using mandatory fingerprinting for non-nationals, many countries are also allowing voluntary opt-in biometric fingerprint identification registration for going through immigration faster. Some of the systems (such as America's Global Entry program or Australia's SmartGate system) are cross-compatible with or prerequisites for other countries. All of them require a Machine-Readable Passport (MRP) or a MRTD (Machine Readable Travel Document) with a standardized MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) for automatic intervention. A few of the systems require e-Passports or other identity cards with smart chips in them. Some of them use or used to use human eye iris scanning instead, in combination, or in lieu of fingerprints.

After registering (which may include submitting your bio-data such as face photo, fingerprint(s), or iris scan if they aren't already encoded in your travel document's chip), you go through the gates by:

1. Scanning the part of your travel identity document that has the MRZ or chip (contact or contactless) at a station that may or may not be manned
2. Confirming your identity against your registered bio-identification, which is usually:
   • two fingerprints
   • a retina scan
   • a facial photo (which may or may not be facially compared and recorded)
3. Depending on the system and your circumstances, you may be forced (or it may be optional) to get your travel document stamped or receive some other sort of paper verification of entering/exiting the country.

The whole process takes anywhere from five to twelve seconds, and the lines for the automated gates are almost always shorter because not everybody registers / opts-in and each person is processed quicker.

Japan's gates require a 15m registration

Japan: 自動ゲート

Japanese nationals and registered foreign residents of Japan eligible. It is free.

United States: Global Entry

U.S. citizens, lawful U.S. permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens, Mexican nationals eligible. It is $100 for five years.

United Kingdom: Registered traveller scheme

A replacement for the now closed IRIS program, those from Japan, the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand can use the UK/EEA channels at Gatwick or Heathrow airports. You currently must be over 18 years old and visit the United Kingdom four or more times per year to qualify. It is free.

Australia: SmartGate

Australians, New Zealanders, U.S. Global Entry participants, United Kingdom passports with certain restrictions, and PRC e-passports in 2015) over the age of 16. 

Canada: NEXUS

Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and U.S. Global Entry members. It is $50 for five years.

Hong Kong: e-道 (e-channel)

Hong Kong (香港 {Honkon}) residents, Macao (澳門 {Makao}) residents, and some foreign residents of Hong Kong, and some non-residents under certain conditions.

Mexico: Viajero Confiable

Mexican citizens and U.S. Global Entry members. It is $1,372 (Mexican pesos).

New Zealand: SmartGate

Australians, New Zealanders, U.S. Global Entry members, and United Kingdom passports with certain restrictions.

South Korea: Smart Entry Service (SES)

U.S. Global Entry members, ROK nationals and some foreign permanent residents under certain conditions

Taiwan: e-Gate

Taiwanese nationals and registered foreign residents of Taiwan

Thailand: Auto-Gates

Thai nationals only

I can confirm through personal experience that the fingerprint databases used by Japan's automated gates and the fingerprints used by the J-VIS system for visitors is not interconnected or merged.

Biometrics for Automated Teller Machines

The middle finger lacks symbolism in Japan

The use of bioidentity (生体認証 {seitai ninshō}) to supplement the authentication process with Japanese ATMs has been available for some time now. Often your middle finger is scanned in combination with a PIN code.

Unfortunately, these systems are not adopted overseas outside Japan, so if you want a cash/debit/credit card that works in countries other than Japan, you usually have to get a "international" card that lacks mandatory biometric controls.

Biometrics for personal electronics and devices

Some Japan-only smartphones have fingerprint sensors

Biometric fingerprint sensors are appearing on everything from door locks to personal computers and laptops & now even smartphones. Often times they're not even an optional accessory anymore and are built into the device. Any device that has could need a password or key to protect personal and private data inside it has the potential to be augmented with a fingerprint reader.

Non-Japanese are usually the least resistant to this form of fingerprint use because the fingerprint data is usually stored locally in your personal possession, and is not stored by a government or third-party. (However, corporate systems often store employee and customer fingerprints in a private cloud).

Even before the iPhone 5s (which has a built in fingerprint sensor and sold very well in Japan), Japan has incorporated fingerprint authentication into many of its electronic devices that were designed for the domestic consumer market: feature phones and laptops. This suggests that Japanese too are relatively less adverse to using fingerprints for personal security and protection of their data — as well as convenience (in the cases where fingerprints are allowed to be used instead of passwords or other forms of identification).

They will probably outlive you.

Anybody that believes they can massively extend their lifespan by changing their passport is unfortunately probably going to be disappointed a few decades down the road after they acquire their Japanese passport. And by "disappointed", I mean dead.

Nobody thinks that becoming legally Japanese is going to magically add years to your life. Many, however, are under the impression that if you live in Japan that there must be something in the water, air, or food that makes Japanese have one of the longest lifespans in the world. As of 2011, Japanese in Japan had the following average lifespan:

• Males: 79.5 years old (#12 in the world)
• Females: 85.8 years old (#1 in the world)
• Overall life expectancy for Japanese in Japan: 82.7 (#1 in the world)

What people outside of Japan (and many foreign residents in Japan are in denial over) don't realize is that even foreigners — and those whose naturalize — who live in Japan for decades rarely live a lifestyle that is exactly Japanese. Sure, foreign residents in Japan eat way more sushi than even the most passionate Japanophile in Los Angeles or New York City. Sure, many foreigners in Japan often live in the same style homes walking around in bare feet and keep warm by sitting under a 火燵 {kotatsu} (low table with a heat source underneath of it and a 布団 {futon} (Japanese heavy/thick quilt or blanket) integrated into the edges to keep the heat from escaping while warming the legs). However, most people that immigrate rarely abandon all their former countries habits. They probably still eat way more meat and sugar and salt and fried food than the average Japanese.

Sorry, this is great, but it will only make you live slightly longer.

And even foreign residents do go full native, they probably spent decades in their home country before immigrating to Japan, and these decades spent living life one way does affect your longevity in the future in a way that suddenly living Japanese-style won't completely erase how your previous lifestyle added "mileage" to your body.

Daniel K. Inouye exceeded expectations (88) for Japanese-Hawaiian-Americans regarding longevity

Comparatively, Asian-Americans (including Japanese-Americans) live much longer than both average Americans and average Japanese in Japan, until they get to the 3rd generation Japanese-American (三世日系人 {sansei nikkei-jin}). Nobody knows definitively why this is, but educated guesses say that by the time one is the third generation, their lifestyles are completely Americanized.

• Average Asian-American in Connecticut lifespan: 92.4 (!) years old
• Average Asian-American lifespan in Hawai'i: 81.7 years old
• Average overall Asian-American lifespan: 87.3 years old

Hawaiian-born naturalized American retired sumo wrestler KONISHIKI has removed a lot of weight post retirement.

There have been studies on (American and Western European) foreigners who have lived in Japan and they have found that living in Japan only very marginally affected their average longevity. Because the population of naturalized foreigners is much smaller, there are no surveys (that I know of) which measure their health compared to the rest of the populace, but there is no reason to speculate that a naturalized person would live that much differently than a long term foreign permanent resident in Japan.

Similarly, Japanese people who live extreme lifestyles do not live as long as average Japanese. The average lifespan for a sumo wrestler (相撲力士 {sumō rikishi}) is only between 60 & 65 years old — ten years shorter than the average Japanese — due to the extreme diet and weight and punishment they put on their bodies — even if they lose much of their fighting weight after they retire.

Magician "Teller" (on the right) legally changed his name to a mononym last name

A mononym is a person with only one name: it may be a "family" name, a "given" name, neither, or a combination of both.

In general, non-Japanese foreign residents of Japan can have mononyms and middle names, hyphenated names, and separate last names for those who are married, with the pragmatic restriction that the name must be transliterated into alphabet and be identical to the alphabet name on your passport.

Japan foreign residents can also have 通称名 {tsūshō-mei} (registered Japanese kanji/kana aliases), and this name may also be a mononym or multiple names — good luck getting a mononym or three or more names recognized and recorded on most Japanese paperwork requiring a name though. However, with the new immigration laws, this name is not imprinted on the 在留カード {zairyū kādo}— it was with the old ARC (Alien Registration Card; 外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho}) system. It is instead on the 住民票 {jūminhyō} (local Residency record) and the corresponding 住基カード {jūki kādo} (Residency Record identification card) if one chooses to get one.

Individual businesses may insist on making your name confirm either to the アルファベット {arufabetto} name on your password/Residence Card or force you to adapt your legal Japanese alias to Japanese paperwork for the purpose of the family/given two name system.

Those whose naturalize or are natural born have less options

Japan requires its nationals/citizens to have exactly two names: a family name and a given name written in either 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) or 漢字 {kanji} (Japanese sinograms), with no punctuation of spaces.

Some people who naturalize simulate a hyphenated name or multiple names be stringing them together in the family name field or the given name field.

"Zeta" is actually her separate middle name

For example, Catherine Zeta Jones is usually transliterated into Japanese as:


If she were to legally naturalize and keep her current name in 片仮名 {katakana} form, her name would look like this:


The 戸籍 {koseki} (Japanese family register) itself separates the family name from each given name in the family unit. It does not allow for punctuation or spaces, but in day-to-day life, she and others in her situation where you can't tell where one word ends and another begins and which go together, one would add the 中黒 {nakaguro} (middle dot 【・】) to separate names, and use the 二重横線 {nijū ōsen} (double horizontal lines 【＝】) to show different names that are linked together.

Technically speaking, however, punctuation and spaces are never part of an official legal Japanese name.

So if you're from a country that only has one name and you decide to naturalize, what do you do? You're actually in a similar situation to most Japanese from before just before the introduction of the modern 戸籍 {koseki} in 1872, after the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 {Meiji Ishin}) in 1868 and just before the Meji Constitution (大日本帝国憲法 {Dai-Nippon Teikoku kenpō}) in 1890:

The Old Era: Japanese peasants/merchants had mononyms; family names only for samurai and nobility

CJKV sinogram (汉字 {hànzì}; 漢字 {kanji}; 한자 {hanja}; 𡨸漢 {chữ Hán}) based "family" names

language/culture	family names	comments
Vietnamese	~100	14 names are 90% of the people 1 name (Nguyễn: 阮) is ~40% of the people multiple given, middle & family names are possible
Korean	~250	3 names are 50% of the population
Chinese	>4,000	20 names are 50% of the 1B+ population 100 names are 80% of 1B+ population
Japanese	>100,000	most created at will after 19th century; most created when population had grown to a large (for the era) 30M people, reducing name extinction

The modern era: Only the Imperial Family has mononyms

How modern passports handle mononyms and middle/multiple names

One legal name. No "family" name.

In countries where mononyms are common (for example, Indonesia) the printed page of the passport will often contain a single field: FULL NAME, rather than two split fields: SURNAME and GIVEN NAME(S).

Inspection officers at border controls rarely input one's data from the passport manually; they swipe or scan the MRP (Machine-readable passport) and the computer reads the OCR-friendly font in the MRZ (machine readable zone) to get all the information off of the first page. The first line of the MRZ will look like this:

1. The first character, "P", means it's a passport, as opposed to a MRZ for another type of international identification
2. The second character is the type of passport if the country has more than one type of passport. For normal passports, this is indicated as blank/null with "<".
3. The "XXX" is the 3-letter country code ISO-3166 indicating what country issued the passport (ex. "JPN" = Japan, "USA" = United States, etc). This is not necessarily the person's nationality.

4. The MRZ contains the simple 26 letter name

   The next field is the "Primary Identifier". For Japanese and many other people, this is the family name(s)/surname(s) converted into alphabet. Letters not in the 26-letter alphabet are converted. (ex.: "ß"→"SS", "Æ"→"AE", "Ö"→"OE"). All punctuation, is converted into "<". This is important because some passports may not use the simple 26-letter ABC Latin alphabet for the human readable name field(s). An example would be a modern Icelandic passport.
5. The next field in the primary/secondary separator. This will be two less-than signs: "<<".
6. The next field is the "Secondary Identifier", For Japanese and many other people, this is the "Given Name". For Americans and other westerners, this will be the "First Name" and the "Middle Name" or "Middle Initial" is there's no space. If the person has a true mononym as recognized by the passport ICAO 9303 specification, the Secondary Identifier will not be present.
7. The line will be padded out to the right to the 44th column with "less-than" ("<") characters.

Even though the international machine-readable passport specification supports it, countries such as Indonesia will often separate the first two words of a given name with "<<" rather than "<", making the first part of the Javanese etc. mononym the "family" name in the eyes of immigration databases and the remaining parts the "given name(s)".

An example of a complicated American name and its encoding in the passport MRZ:

GeorgeMichaelRichards-Stevens, Jr.

Blue: Given "First" Name

Cyan: Given "Middle" Name

Lime: Family "Last" Name

Red: Name Suffix(es)

P<USARICHARDS<STEVENS<JR<<GEORGE<MICHAEL<<<<

Purple: "Primary Identifier"

Magenta: "Secondary Identifier"

How Residence Cards for Foreign Residents of Japan Handle Names

If she was legally Chinese/Taiwanese there there might be kanji under the passport name

Because Japan's identification cards for non-Japanese need to handle all the various systems of names in the world (different alphabets, different name orders, one to many names) yet be able to be processed by Japanese bureaucracy and forms and computers that are able to handle only Japanese and the simple alphabet, the cards represent names by:

• Only using one field, "NAME" to handle all the names (one for a Javanese mononym to multiple for a Brazilian — they will run the name onto the reverse side of the card if necessary!) a non-Japanese might have.
• Only using the 26-character ABC アルファベット {arufabetto} (alphabet) to render names. They do this by using the passport name(s) in the passport order, by consulting the original fields if they are alphabetic and simple or using the transliteration provided in the passport's MRZ.
• If the passport has an official printed Chinese 漢字 {hànzì} on its front page (ex. a Taiwanese passport or a PRC passport) and the same or equivalent identical or corresponding sinograms are in Japanese, that name may also be present. Because it is non-trivial for a Japanese person to input non-Japanese sinograms, they will often use the passport alphabetic transliteration of the name for practicality.

How does the United States (and many computer forms) handle mononyms?

"My Virginia driver's license says 'Pocahontas NLN'"

Considering that the United States is mostly a land of immigrants, and that many of the original Native American ("Indian") tribes had mononyms, you would think that the United States would be well adapted to handle just one name (or four or more). Most federal government and state governments, however, insist on two or more names.

For those Americans or non-Americans that only have one name, a placeholder is used to indicate that a name field was not left blank on purpose:

NFN

No First Name: No given names exist

NLN

No Last Name: No family name exists

Police and medical records may also use the terms "FNU" and "LNU" to indicate respectively, the first or last name is unknown (but may exist).

Landing immigrants at Castle Garden, NYC

It is true that Japan doesn't have promotional policies where they reach out to other countries and ask or encourage them to immigrate, but Japan does not set up laws with the intent of reducing the number of mid to long term foreigners. And sometimes they tweak new or existing immigration laws if they perceive them as being too hard to too lenient or they have loopholes which can be exploited.

Limited "family reunion" policy reduces "chain migration"

The primary difference between the U.S. (which has a high level of immigration) and Japan's immigration system is that the U.S. immigration policy allows for two major paths to legally immigrate:

1. By employment: getting a job that is considered immigration worthy.
2. By "family reunification": having a family member (brother, sister, mother, father etc) already in the country.

"other" includes "diversity" (green card lottery) candidates & refugees/asylum seekers

In America, at least 50% and up to 70% (depending on the year, since 1965, thanks to the Immigration Act of that year) of legal immigration comes from path #2.

Japan, on the other hand, generally has only has one major path:

1. By high skilled work. How this is defined is complicated, but in a nutshell it's anything that requires a formal education above high school level.

"other" includes refugees/asylum seekers; "designated activities/work" includes PR and SPR

Chain Migration compound effect

In Japan, you can bring your immediate family (your spouse and your direct non-adult children), but you can't generally bring your mother, father, brother, sister, etc. If they want to come, they usually need to qualify via path #1.

This reduces the affect of what's known as "chain migration". Chain migration is when the immigration of one person causes or sets up or enables the migration of many other people: either directly (because they're family) or indirectly (the community and friends that surrounded that person/family who immigrated).

Up to your living great grandparents to qualify

There is a path to a Status of Residence known as "long term resident" (定住者 {teijūsha}). In the particular case where you can prove a connection to a Japanese national via 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) within three (3) generations and you can get access to that document (meaning you have the family register holder's permission to obtain a copy) and the generation is still alive, then you can qualify for this SoR that is almost equivalent to Permanent Resident (永住者 {eijūsha}) status.

This status initially attracted — and continues to though in lesser numbers from the bubble heydays — many Japanese-Brazilians (descended from Japanese whose ancestors immigrated to Brazil in the early 1900s) in the late eighties and nineties, as well as Taiwanese, Chinese, and Koreans.

However, because it requires a 3-generation-or-less connection to a Japanese national and not another legal foreign resident, its ability to cause "chain migration" has been relatively limited.

It is possible to obtain "Spouse or Dependent" status (永住者の配偶者等 {eijūsha no haigūsha nado}) with unlimited right to live or work by being linked to a foreign resident with PR status, but if you're married to a someone who is not a Japanese national (natural born or naturalized) or a permanent resident you need a "Family Stay" status (家族滞在 {kazoku taizai}) which does not usually permit employment without special exception.

Physically difficult and expensive to "get one's foot in the door"

Because Japan is surrounded by seas and oceans with no land border neighbors, it is geographically very difficult for potential immigrants to enter illegally, and makes travel (airfare) expensive compared to land/car crossings. That also keeps the whole immigrant (legal & illegal) population low.

Language, language, language

Most importantly, the language of the land is Japanese... so in order to qualify for Path #1 (high skilled labor), you usually have to speak/read/write it from Day One for most available white collar jobs (that would fall under a designated work activity worthy of a visa) in Japan. Yes, there are IT jobs and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs where you can use English (and there's teaching English), as well as elite executive jobs and expat jobs like those in finance, but in the grand scheme of things when looking at percentages, this is a tiny portion of the available jobs out there in Japan for somebody fluent in Japanese.

This is a much higher barrier than other countries, where the availability of high-skilled jobs in "popular" first/second languages (usually meaning English in the 20th/21st century) is more plentiful.

Polls open from 7am to 8pm on election day (Sun 2014-Feb-9)

After Governor Naoki INOSE (猪瀬直樹知事 {INOSE Naoki chiji}) resigned on December 19th 2012, due to questions and allegations of improper financing, a new election for the Governor of Tokyo was set up to quickly replace him: the election is set for Sunday, February 9th, 2014 — less than two months after 猪瀬 {INOSE} announced his resignation. Japan usually (but not always) sets their election days on Sundays to maximize turnout.

While not a national election, the "local" election of Tokyo governor is a big deal: both in Japan and internationally. The Tokyo metropolitan area has one of the largest populations and GDPs in the world; both numbers are larger than most countries in the world. Because of this, the logistics for running an election this large this quickly are formidable:

Registered Eligible Voters:

10,820,567 citizens (58,761 more people than last election)

• 5,319,456 men
• 5,501,111 women

Candidates

sixteen (16)

Anybody that deposits ¥3,000,000 and is a Japanese national and at least 30 years old can run for prefectural governor in Japan (expect to lay out at least¥6,000,000 up front for other incidentals). You get the deposit back if you get at least 10% of the total vote.

The candidates were announced on Saturday, January 23rd.

Name	Age	Political Party	Profession
ひめじけんじ {HIMEJI Kenji}	61	unaffiliated	building management industry
宇都宮健児 {UTSUNOMIYA Kenji}	67	unaffiliated (supported by JCP, SDP, Greens Japan and New Socialist party of Japan)	lawyer
ドクター・中松 {Dokutā · NAKAMATSU} (Doctor NakaMats)	85	unaffiliated	inventor
田母神俊雄 {TAMOGAMI Toshio}	65	unaffiliated (supported by Restoration Political Party・New Wind)	former JASDF Chief of Staff
鈴木達夫 {SUZUKI Tatsuo}	73	unaffilated	lawyer
中川智晴 {NAKAGAWA Tomoharu}	55	unaffiliated	first class architect
舛添要一 {MASUZOE Yōichi}	65	unaffiliated (supported by New Komeito and LDP / LibDems)	former Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW)
細川護熙 {HOSOKAWA Morihiro}	76	unaffiliated (supported by DPJ, People's Life Party and Yuinotoh)	former Prime Minister
マック赤坂 {Makku AKASAKA} (Mac Akasaka)	65	Smile Party	therapist
家入一真 {IEIRI Kazuma}	35	unaffiliated	director/officer of internet/IT company
内藤久遠 {NAITŌ Hisao}	56	unaffiliated	former president of a construction equipment sales company
金子博 {KANEKO Hiroshi}	84	unaffiliated	hotel management industry
五十嵐政一 {IGARASHI Masaichi}	82	unaffiliated	board chairman of general association
酒向英一 {SAKŌ Eiichi}	64	unaffiliated	former municipal agricultural affairs worker
松山親憲 {MATSUYAMA Chikanori}	72	unaffiliated	part time employee of a security company
根上隆 {NEGAMI Takashi}	64	unaffiliated	former city worker for 中野区 {Nakano-ku}

Polling Stations:

1,869 locations

Vote Counting Stations:

62 locations

Campaign Poster Boards:

14,134 locations

Early Voting Locations:

283 locations

Campaign Expenditure Limits:

¥60,500,000

• base: ¥24,200,000
• per population: ¥36,300,000 (¥7 per registered voter)

Historical voter turnout (last 18 elections since 1947):

• High: 72.36% (1971)
• Low: 43.19% (1987)
• Average: 58.76%

Weather affects turnout, even with early voting

Who Is Eligible to Vote

Sorry, Osakans not eligible to vote

Those meeting these all three conditions can vote in the 2014 Tokyo governor election:

• Japanese nationals (natural-born and naturalized)
• Born on or before February 10, 1994 — 20 years old, which is the age one is considered to be an "adult" in Japan
• Registered residents of Tokyo on or before October 22, 2013 — have lived in Tokyo metro proper for three (3) months or more

Early Voting (期日前投票 {kijitsuzen tōhyō})

Absentee Voting (不在者投票 {fuzaisha tōhyō})

What to Bring

I thought about what to write for weeks.

Everyone except for those under the age of fifteen (15) and Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha}; SPR) must write an essay, handwritten in Japanese, in one's own words, as to why you want to become a Japanese national by naturalizing. If you are over sixty (60) years old, your case worker may permit you to let somebody else transcribe it on your behalf — although it still must be your own words.

There's an alternative motive for the essay as well: because it has to be your own words and handwritten, it serves as an informal test of whether an applicant can write and understand Japanese. A Japanese immigration lawyer has told me that for applicants whose Japanese is weak, this is the hardest part of the application process. Some applicants study Japanese for three to five years just to get their Japanese level to the point where they can write this essay.

For this reason, it's probably not a good idea to have a Japanese person write it for you or first write it in English and then have it translated and copy the result: the case worker will be able to tell if your spoken Japanese does not match the level and style of the Japanese written on paper.
Below is a one page sample essay (that you should not copy; read the 3rd paragraph of this post for the reason why) written by a fictitious South Korean applicant to give you an idea of what somebody else's motivation / statement of intent essay looks like:

　私は、韓国ソウル特別市生まれの在日韓国人です。
　本国の高校を卒業し、家事手伝い、会社のレストランの
レジ係等をへて、現在、主婦をしています。
　この間に日本人「森　三郎」と結婚しましたが、性格
の相違で離婚し、さらに、緑あって日本人「横田　淳」と
結婚できまして、今はとても幸せです。
　私は、夫と生まれてくる子供のためにも永住したいと思
います。
　私は将来夫が定年になった頃は、小さなアイディアの
オモチャ屋さんをして、子供達に夢をふくらませてもらい
たいと思います。
　私は夫と仲良くまじめに生活していますので、家庭はす
こぶる円満です。また、日本になじんで生活をいたしてお
りますので、今更本国に帰る気持ちはありません。
　従って、私は夫と生まれて来る子供のためにぜひ帰化を
したいと心から希望いたしています。
どうかご許可のほどよろしくお願いいたします。以上。

     I am a South Korean born in the capital city Seoul.
     I graduated from high school in the my country, and worked as a cashier at a restaurant. I am now a home maker.
     During that time, I married a Japanese national, "Saburō MORI". However, due to personality differences we divorced. I later found greener pastures and married the Japanese national "Jun YOKOTA". We are very happy now.
     I would like to permanently live in Japan with my husband and have children here.
     Although it is a small idea, when my husband retires in the future, I would like to run a toy store that brings joy to children.
     My husband and I have an honest living in Japan and we get along well. Our family is full of harmony, so I have no feelings about returning to my original country.
     Because of this, for my husband and future children, I strongly wish, from my heart, to naturalize.
     I humbly ask for your consideration. That's all.

Make sure you sign and date the essay at the end.

reject, misfit, trailblazer, journalist / muckraker, writer / hack, pioneer / legend

Patrick "Lafcadio" Hearn, who would later become 小泉八雲 {KOIZUMI Yakumo}, was a Greek Anglo-Irish* writer/journalist and English language teacher who might hold the distinction of being the very first person to legally acquire Japanese nationality via naturalization. He did this by marrying the daughter of a samurai who had just been stripped of his feudal class ranking due to the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 {Meiji ishin}) and the introduction of Japan's first constitution: the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (大日本帝国憲法 {Dai-Nippon teikoku kempō}), aka the Meiji Constitution (明治憲法 {Meiji kempō}).


Why is he probably the first foreigner to become legally Japanese? Because he came to Japan just prior to the existence of Japan's first Constitution and naturalized soon after its introduction.

Name changed in Japan to ドナルド・マクドナルド (Donald McDonald) in deference to the first

Prior to Japan resident Lafcadio Hearn, there was one other notable native non-university English teacher who had stayed in Japan: ラナルド・マクドナルド {Ranarudo · MAKUDONARUDO} (Ranald MacDonald). Whereas Hearn distinguished himself by being the first legal native English speaking teacher in Japan, MacDonald distinguished himself by being the first illegalnative English speaking non-Japanese in Japan! Sneaking first into 焼尻島｛Yagishiri-tō} (Yagishiri Island) on June 27th, 1848, then 利尻島Rishiri-tō (Rishiri Island) on July 1st by shore excursion boat, he pretended to be shipwrecked so he wouldn't be put to death, — as per the isolationist policy of the time.

And some think modern immigration rules are tough!

The Ainu people of Hokkaidō turned him over to their area samurai clans' lords, who sent him to Nagasaki, which was the only place in Japan that dealt with foreigners at the time.

A Sloop-of-War with sixteen cannons per side

He was confined and restricted to living in a temple and taught fourteen samurai English while picking up a little Japanese for about ten months before the American warship USS Preble† picked him up along with other shipwrecked sailors and he was essentially deported less than a year later in April, 1849.

MacDonald's lasting achievement was teaching a dozen samurai enough English to negotiate with Commodore Matthew Perry and testifying to the United States Congress that the Japanese were not savages; they were civilized.

†The Captain of the USS Preble, James Glynn, is actually the first American to even successfully negotiate with Japan during its "closed country" (鎖国 {sakoku}) foreign relations policy days.

Legally speaking...

George CHAKIRIS plays Yakumo KOIZUMI in NHK's 『日本の面影』 {Nihon no omokage} (1984)

In the Empire of Japan's first constitution, Article 18 reads:

Article 18. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese subject shall be determined by law.
第18条日本臣民タル要件ハ法律ノ定ムル所ニ依ル

Reasons behind the names

Lafcadio (ラフカディオ {Rafukadio})

Patrick Hearn began using his middle name as his first name and pen name around the time he came to America. It is said that he did this for one or more of these three reasons:

1. He became so alienated by Christianity, due to the church failing to recognize his parents' marriage, his being shipped off to various religious boarding schools to become a priest, and later losing an eye at one of the schools, that he wanted to use a given name other than his namesake taken from Saint Patrick.
2. After coming to America, using the name Lafcadio, which is derived from his birthplace, allowed him to convey his roots.
3. It was more memorable and catchy as a pen name for publishing.

ヘルン {HERUN}

When Hearn originally arrived in Matsue, his name was recorded in this way in his employer / school's roster. Hearn is said to have like the way it looked. Hearn's name began to become well known and spread from this source, even though his wife attempted to correct him and others by telling people a closer transliteration was 『ハーン』 {"Hān"}.

八雲 {Yakumo}

For his naturalized given name, he made up a name that was the combination of the first sinogram from the opening word / song 『八重垣』 {yaegaki} ("fences within fences" / multilayered) and the last 漢字 {kanji} (sinogram) from the old province name for the 松江 {Matsue} area, "Izumo" (『出雲国』 {"izumonokuni"}). 『八雲』 {"Yakumo"} thus literally means "eight clouds".

小泉 {KOIZUMI}

His wife's family name, and the name of a "downtrodden" samurai clan family that lost their feudal class status after the Meiji Revolution. A man in Japan, even today, sometimes takes a woman's family name in Japan after marriage (or naturalization) when:

• Their are no male siblings to continue the name.
• The woman's family name and/or reputation has high status.
• The man's name has low status and/or is tainted by scandal.

However, Hearn mentioned that his motivation for taking his spouse's name was connected to the preservation of his first son's Japanese nationality.

"Old Semicolon"

A nickname given to him by other journalists who worked with or knew of him from his writings in newspapers and magazines due to what they thought was an overuse/abuse of ellipses and semicolons. Hearn used punctuation more than other writers of the time and used it unconventionally. For example, he often used a semicolon followed by an em dash to indicate a significant pause. Hearn usually insisted that he have final editorial control on his published works, and he'd claim that he'd rather turn down a commission fee than allow another editor to alter his punctuation, capitalization, or style.

As a homage (and perhaps also to poke a little fun), this post is written using some of his punctuation quirks regarding semicolons, dashes, and ellipses.

正覚院殿浄華八雲居士

His new Buddhist name received after death, — his 戒名 {kaimyō} ("precept name"). These names, received from the temple, are intentionally long and hard to pronounce as a superstition which prevents the return of the deceased if their name is accidentally called.

The seventeen stories (along with three essays) in the book come from tales told to him by his wife.

Timeline of Lafcadio Hearn's Life

Hearn jumped around a lot of jobs, a lot of countries, and wrote a lot of works in a relatively short amount of time. His CV is so full of job-hopping that it would make a bubble-era internet startup veteran blush. According to biographers and other people who worked with him, Hearn was known to be extremely difficult to work with; he was not really known to be a team player.

To apply a modern internet term to a quill-and-parchment era, he was known to "flame" the very patrons that compensated him for his work … not to mention the school and country he belonged to … in letter correspondence. He would then quitting after alienating his colleagues. He had a lot of bridges to opportunity. And he burned a lot of them. Fortunately, he also had the ability to find new bridges and build them quickly.

In many ways, Hearn's experience in Japan is similar to what many Americans who came to Japan during the bubble era of "Japanese internationalization" (国際化kokusaika) 1980's and early nineties experienced living in Japan and working at an 英会話eikaiwa (English Conversation School); Hearn managed to exploit Japan's need for modernization … spurred by the Meiji Renovation … and catching up to the West by learning English from a native speaker in Japan.

The man that got Hearn a job in Japan

His timing on how he got to Japan was excellent. He got his first job by accidentally meeting 服部一三 {HATTORI Ichizō} at the New Orleans World Fair in 1884. Hattori was the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce at the time, and he would later be a bureau director for the Ministry of Education. Hattori's connections and introduction would be instrumental in getting Hearn his first teaching job in Japan.

Afterwards, he would rely on the connections of other people in Japan such as Tokyo U's Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who was a famous Japanologist in his own right and had been living in Japan since 1873. Friends at first, then colleagues thanks to Chamberlain's invitation, their relationship would unfortunately later become estranged.

Nellie Bly was famous for exposing conditions in insane asylums

Met Hearn in 1880s in New Orleans

The other thing that got him to Japan was professional rivalry and one-uppmanship; in the 1890's investigative journalists were taking advantage of modern travel technology (new steamships and railways) and were inspired by the fictional book "Around the World in Eighty Days" (八十日間世界一周 {hachijū nichikan sekai isshū}) by Jules Verne (ジュール・ヴェルヌ {Jūru · VERUNU}). Celebrity investigative journalist Nellie Bly, sponsored by Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, went east from New York; she had nothing but extra undergarments, a heavy coat, a small portable bag, £200, some gold and American currency.

Rival publisher Cosmopolitan (back then a New York newspaper, not a fashion magazine), sent their own famous female reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, in the opposite direction, attempting to beat both the book and Bly's time. Both women barely beat the book, with Bly coming in at 72 days, and Bisland coming in at 76½ days.

Hearn was fascinated by both the fictional book (in which one of the cities covered was Yokohama) as well as Elizabeth Bisland, whose travels and writings in her seven part newspaper series (compiled into "In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World" by Harper & Brothers in 1891) covered Japan extensively. Bisland would later publish a very well-reviewed two volume biography, "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn", which made the maverick look sympathetic.

Some photos & quotes in this post were taken from this biography.

During his life he would write 11 books and countless newspaper and magazine articles.
Those works are omitted from this timeline for brevity.

YEAR (JP era year)	AGE ±1y	EVENT	DETAILS	COMMENT
1848 嘉永元年	-2	first (illegal) immigrant in Japan	ラナルド・マクドナルド {Ranarudo · MAKUDONARUDO} (Ranald MacDonald)	taught a little English, learned a little Japanese, deported a year later
1850 嘉永３年	0	birth	as Patrick Lafcadio Hearn	Greek mother and Irish father, out of wedlock and/or not recognized by church due to religion conflicts.
		death	of older brother, George
1852 嘉永５年	2	immigration	to Dublin, Ireland	via Liverpool, England
		deserted	by father	sailed away from Ireland to new marriage
		abandoned	by mother	returned to Greece, given to husband's aunt
1854 安政元年	4	Japan opened	Commodore Perry steams into the port of Yokohama with the "black ships."	Issued one year after Treaty of Peace with Japan aka The Treaty of San Francisco and the first Security Treaty
1862 文久２年	12	boarding school	Catholic Institution Ecclésiastique	learned French (and inspired move to New Orleans), came to hate Christian education and lose his religion, changing his common name from the St. Patrick inspired name to his middle given name.
1863 文久３年	13	school	St. Cuthbert's College	to prepare for priesthood
1866 慶応２年	16	accident	disfigured and loses sight in left eye	playground mishap with pole and ropes: "giant's stride"
1867 慶応３年	17	passport	first modern Japanese passport issued	to 隅田川浪五郎 {SUMIDAGAWA Namigorō}
1868 ㍾元年	18	Meiji Restoration	samurai class abolished	Nathan Algren: not the last samurai or the first gaijin
1869 ㍾２	19	immigration	to New York City, United States	Hearn came to NYC 17 years before the Statue of Liberty
		pen/name change	to his middle name: Lafcadio Hearn	in honor of birthplace, Ionian island of Lefkas
1872 ㍾５	22	new job	at Cincinnati Daily Enquirer	Ohio
		family register	modern Japanese family register established	first national system to include all people
1875 ㍾８	25	marriage	to Alethea ("Mattie") Foley	Mattie was a quote "colored [sic] kitchen hand"
1877 ㍾10	27	fired	due to interracial marriage	illegal under local miscegenation laws as Foley was, in her own words, "Creole". In other people of the time's words, "Mulatto".
		new job	at The Cincinnati Commercial	rival newspaper
		"dissolved" marriage	from Alethea ("Mattie") Foley	no official divorce record exists
		move	to New Orleans	His house still exists and is preserved.
		new job	at Item Newspaper / Daily City Item	carved politcal satire cartoons/drawings on wood blocks with a penknife to be printed alongside his articles
		new businesses	satirical magazine & The Hard Times Restaurant	both the magazine and the restaurant would fail in a few years
1881 ㍾14	31	new job	at Times=Democrat.	new competing paper
1887 ㍾20	37	travel	in French West Indies / Martinique / Caribbean	2 years around capital St. Pierre before being destroyed by volcano
		freelance commission	to Harper's Weekly	commissioned to write about Japan
1890 ㍾23	40	immigration	to 神奈川県横浜市 {Kanagawaken Yokohamashi} (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture) via Vancouver	Not much government sponsored tourism and promotion back then.
		renounces contractual obligations	to Harper's Weekly	"assailed…editor" with a "torrent of abusive letters" due to "some discontent magnified by paranoia"
		freelance commission	to The Atlantic	maintained a good relationship; published many articles with the magazine.
1890 ㍾23	40	new jobs	at a middle school and general school as an English teacher due to U.S. connection	now a HS and uni
		moved	to 松江 {Matsue}	The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum (小泉八雲記念館 {Koizumi Yakumo Kinenkan}) is next door.
		new constitution	Meiji Constitution	Article 18 ⇒ nationality law
1891 ㍾24	41	(unregistered) marriage	to 小泉セツ {KOIZUMI Setsu}	Because he failed to properly divorce first wife, was now technically a bigamist.
		moved	to 熊本 {Kumamoto} in 九州 {Kyūshū}	had difficulty with the cold weather in 松江 {Matsue}
		new job	at Fifth High School	as an English teacher
1893 ㍾26	43	first son	小泉一雄 {KOIZUMI Kazuo}	English name: Leopold
1894 ㍾27	44	resigned	from Fifth High School	due to office politics
		new job	at 神戸クロニクル {Kōbe Koronikuru} (Kobe Chronicle) and ジャパンメール {Japan mēru} (Japan Mail)	also known/printed as The Japan Chronicle
		moved	to 神戸 {Kōbe}'s residences for foreign settlers	an area that was also becoming known for its foreign population
1896 ㍾29	46	naturalization	into 小泉八雲 {KOIZUMI Yakumo}	pre-naturalization and post-naturalization names were publicized until recently
		resigned	from 神戸クロニクル {Kōbe Koronikuru} (Kobe Chronicle)	due to health (failing eyesight)
		new job	at 東京帝国大学 {Tōkyō teikoku daigaku} (Tokyo Imperial University)	used connections from friendship with Professor Basil H. Chamberlain
		moved	rented new home in 牛込区市谷富久町 {Tanitomihisachō, Ushigome-ku (Ushigome Ward, Tokyo)	present day: 新宿区 {Shinjuku-ku} (Shinjuku Ward)
1897 ㍾30	47	second son	小泉巌 {KOIZUMI Iwao}	given away/adopted in 1901 by another family and took their family name: 稲垣巌INAGAKI Iwao. Became English teacher.
1899 ㍾32	49	third son	小泉清 {KOIZUMI Kiyoshi} English name: "Paul"	became a poet / artist
1902 ㍾35	52	moved	to 西大久保 {Nishi-Ōkubo}	final days were lived here
1903 ㍾36	53	first daughter	小泉寿々子 {KOIZUMI Suzuko}	All four children, grown. LTR: Kiyoshi, Iwao, Suzuko, Kazuo
		resigned	from 東京帝国大学 {Tōkyō teikoku daigaku} (Tokyo Imperial University) due to health and office politics	replaced by 夏目漱石 {NATSUME Sōseki}
1904 ㍾37	54	new job	at 早稲田大学 {Waseda daigaku} (Waseda University)	stayed in Tokyo
		leave of absence	from 早稲田大学 {Waseda daigaku} (Waseda University)	due to poor health
		death	due to heart attack	雑司ヶ谷霊園Zōshigaya Cemetery
1915 ㍽４	+11	conferral of posthumous rank	従四位 {jushii} (secondary 4th position) in the 神道 {Shintō} (Japanese religion) / court rank	8th from the top

We can't refer to the protected images of the international winter games in Sochi, Russia

Former South Korean national 安賢洙 {AN Hyonsu}— in ハングル {hanguru} (Korean syllabet): 안 현수 {AN Hyeonsu} — in his English preferred spelling: Ahn Hyun-Soo — is a world-class short track speed skating champion. He changed his nationality from South Korea to Russia, becoming Виктор Ан {Viktor AHN}. He won three gold medals and one bronze for the Republic of Korea in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Now, in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, he has won a gold medal for the hosting country, the Russian Federation (ロシア連邦 {Roshia Rempō}).

Athletes changing nationality is nothing new. What is unusual about Ahn is how high profile and how he had such a long and successful sports winning career with his previous country. Compared to most naturalized elite athletes, and his motives for changing nationality were a little unusual: he had a falling out with the sports association in his home country.

The reason that most athletes change citizenship is because of one of these reasons:

• their home country either doesn't have or support their sport
• their home country has so much depth and talent that they wouldn't get qualify for the team
• the odds of standing out and getting more attention or better training, exposure, opportunities, compensation, or facilities in another country are better.
• a country that is not strong in a sport but wants to be is "seeding" their sports program to try to get victories early and jump-start the level of play in their own country

Some countries, such as Russia, loosen requirements for world class athletes that wish to compete under the country's flag and anthem. Other countries, such as Japan and the United States, require exceptional athletes to perform the same procedures and same rules that other naturalization applicants go through. According to the New York Times, ice short-track team coach Jang Kwon-ok

… did say that the process for [AHN Hyun-Soo / Viktor AHN] receiving Russian citizenship was “very, very easy,” compared with the layers of paperwork and the residency requirements that would be expected of someone trying to gain American citizenship.

When athletes naturalize to Japanese nationality, they must still meet the residency requirements for either regular naturalization or simplified naturalization (if they have living Japanese national immediate family connections). There is actually a third option for naturalization, dubbed "extraordinary naturalization" in English (大帰化 {taikika}), which in theory could be used to "fast track" an athlete's acquisition of Japanese nationality and bypass all the requirements, but not a single person, no matter how special, has ever naturalized using extraordinary naturalization.

When athletes decide to take Japanese nationality, they do so for reasons often connected with continuing to be related to the sport even after their athletically prime years.

大相撲 {Ō-zumō} (Professional Sumo wrestling)

At 203cm & 227kg in his prime, AKEBONO wasn't the largest, but he was one of the (literally) biggest and most successful.

You do not need to be a Japanese national to participate in professional sumo — or even reach its top rank, 横綱 {yokozuna}— a title granted by deliberation not just by one's win-lose record (there can be more than one at the same time). Once one becomes a 横綱 {yokozuna}, they cannot lose the rank or be demoted; it is expected that one gracefully retire if they can no longer sustain a caliber of performance befitting the title. There have been more than a couple foreigners who have achieved the top rank. 曙太郎 {AKEBONO Tarō} (né Chad Haaheo ROWAN of Waimānalo, Hawai'i), was the first. He would eventually naturalize to Japanese.

ハワイ {Hawai} (Hawaii)

ブルガリア {Burugaria} (Bulgaria)

The first wrestler to naturalize, however, was 髙見山大五郎 {TAKAMIYAMA Daigorō}, formerly Jesse James Wailani KUHAULUA, who would trail blaze the path for many Hawaiians and Pacific islanders into the Japanese sport for years to come in the seventies and eighties. The first European origin wrestler to naturalize was 琴欧洲勝紀 {KOTO-ŌSHŪ Katsunori} né Калоян Стефанов Махлянов {Kalojan Stefanov MAHLJANOV} from the Republic of Bulgaria in 2014.

The reason most foreign wrestlers naturalize is so they can obtain 年寄名跡 {toshiyori myōseki}, aka 親方株 {oyakata kabu}. There are only 105 family names allowed for professional sumo coaches / stable masters, and you need a license to have one. In order to obtain a license, you need Japanese nationality as sumo is considered to be a national sport of Japan. When 髙見山大五郎 {TAKAMIYAMA Daigorō} naturalized, in addition to his legal Japanese name, the next professional sumo name he chose (from the allowed 105) after his wrestler name was 『東関』 {"Azumazeki"}.

The other reason professional wrestlers naturalize is that nowadays, a professional sumo stable is limited to one wrestler of foreign nationality.

プロ野球 {puro yakyū} (Nippon Professional Baseball)

Played for 7 years as ROC national

In the past, the NPB league used to have a "two guest — as in non-Japanese national — player per team" rule. Some players of the past, such as Taiwanese 佳久源治 {KAKU Genji} (né 郭源治 {GUŌ Yuánzhì}), became naturalized Japanese.

However, these days, foreign players are, by the rules, treated more like Japanese nationals: the limit on the number of foreign players per team has been abolished, and foreign nationals are eligible for free agency in Japan just like Japanese nationals.

Additionally, for the World Baseball Classic, an international competition consisting of the best baseball players from around the world (pro & amateur), being a national or citizen is not a requirement for representing one's country; having permanent residency or being in the process of getting a passport or nationality is enough to represent a country. Thus, cases where one naturalizes for the sake of this event are not common.

サッカー {sakkā} (Soccer / Association Football)

Because many soccer competitions are international and based on national teams, cases of players changing their nationality are quite common. Professional soccer was introduced to Japan in the form of the J-League in the nineties, Japan's competitive level started rising as Japan imported more and more talent from powerhouses such as Brazil.

RAMOS Ruy

SANTOS Alessandro

Some of the most famous footballers from Brazil who became Japanese include ラモス瑠偉 {RAMOSU Rui} né Ruy Gonçalves Ramos SOBRINHO — who represented Japan in the 1993 World Cup held in the United States and was one of the first early stars of the new J-League (you could see him in ads endorsing products all the time in Japan) — and 三都主アレサンドロ {SANTOSU Aresandoro} né Alessandro dos SANTOS — who represented Japan in the 2002 World Cup held in South Korea. Some of these "first generation" (一世 {issei}) naturalized Japanese have sired children who are natural-born Japanese pro soccer players: The Havenaar (ハーフナー {HĀFUNĀ}) and Coimbra (コインブラ {KOIMBURA}) families are multi-generation Japanese national soccer families who immigrated to Japan and naturalized.

While some, such as 安倍晋三総理大臣 {ABE Shinzō Sōridaijin}　(Japan Prime Minister Shinzō ABE) approve of foreign soccer players naturalizing to Japan and are proud of and recognize them as Japanese, other people who regulate the sport internationally have expressed concern over the imbalances in world talent caused by the practice of changing one's nationality in order to compete in the FIFA World Cup (Ｗ杯 {daburu hai}). FIFA President Joseph "Sepp" Blatter has said that when one country's league (such as the Premier League) can take all the best foreign players via money and incentives, then other country's will have difficulty fielding competitive squads. Blatter said:

"I want to try to, if not persuade [the chief executive of the Premier League and] at least influence him in his thoughts that to have a minimum of local players will enhance the quality of his league."

FIFA President Blatter has also said this regarding the limitation of international "journeymen"— athletes who change nationality via simplified procedures for the sake of international soccer competition:

"We need to find a solution to putting the brake on player naturalization. If we don't be careful, not just Europe, but Asia and Africa will be overrun with Brazilian players."

Other sports

The reason people naturalize for competing in international and domestic sport for Japan tend to fall into two main categories:

1. Those who need the Japanese nationality because the requirements for joining teams are nationality based.
2. Those who need Japanese nationality because their is a limit on the number of non-Japanese that can be on a team. By naturalizing they bypass this requirement.

softball (womens)

• 宇津木麗華 {UTSUGI Reika} née 任彦麗 {RÈN Yànlí} from China

table tennis (womens)

• 小山ちれ {KOYAMA Chire} née 何智丽 {HÉ Zhìlí} from China

basketball (mens)

• マッカーサー・エリック {MAKKĀSĀ · Erikku} (Eric McARTHUR) from the United States
• 桜木ジェイアール {SAKURAGI Jeiāru} (J.R. SAKURAI) né Milton HENDERSON Jr. from the United States

basketball (womens)

• 河恩珠 {HA Unju}, from the South Korea, chose to keep using her 漢字 {hanja} (Korean sinograms) for her new post-naturalization Japanese name and use a 仮名 {kana} (Japanese syllabet) non-standard "reading" (よみがな {yomigana}) that sounds similar to her birth name: 하은주 {HA Eun-ju}.

volleyball (mens)

• 杉山マルコス {SUGIYAMA Marukosu} né Marcos Sugiyama ESTEVES from Brazil

volleyball (womens)

• 高木貴子 {TAKAGI Takako} née 白井貴子 {SHIRAI Takako} from Korea — had 朝鮮籍 {chōsen-seki} aka "Korean domicile"

ice hockey (mens)

• ブライト・クリス {BURAITO · Kurisu} (Chris Bright) from Canada
• 大城ジョエル・ディック {ŌSHIRO Joeru · Dikku} né Joel DYCK from Canada

archery (womens)

• the 早川 {HAYAKAWA} née 嚴惠 {EOMHYER} sisters from South Korea

Rugby

Rugby normally classifies people by the country of their residence rather than their nationality, so naturalization isn't common for this sport. However, some foreigners — who were champions at their Japanese universities and were not restricted by not being Japanese — became legally Japanese after graduation so they wouldn't be treated as foreign athletes per the rules of the Japan Rugby Top League.

• ナタニエラ・オト {Nataniera · OTO} né Nataniela OTO from Kingdom of Tonga
• ルアタンギ・侍バツベイ {Ruatangi · SAMURAI BATSUBEI} né Luatangi VATUVEI from Kingdom of Tonga

The Other Direction: natural-born Japanese naturalizing to other countries

There are also a few Japanese nationals who have changed their nationality to compete for other countries' teams:

gymnastics (mens)

• 塚原直也 {TSUKAHARA Naoya} changed to Australian nationality

figure skating (womens)

• Юко Кавагути {Juko KAVAGUTI} née 川口悠子 {KAWAGUCHI Yūko} changed to Russian nationality

marathon (mens)

• 瀧崎邦明 {TAKIZAKI Kuniaki} aka 『猫ひろし』 {"Neko Hiroshi"} (the professional comedian's stage name) changed to Cambodian nationality

Not all attempted nationality changes are successful and pay off, however. For example, in 瀧崎邦明 {TAKIZAKI Kuniaki}'s case, the IOC ruled that he was ineligible to compete in the 2012 London summer games because a year had not passed since changing his nationality, despite Cambodia declaring him as eligible to represent the country.

Choosing (to keep) Japanese nationality via 国籍選択 {kokuseki sentaku} ([Adult] Choice of [One] Nationality)

There are a few instances of athletes, who were naturally born dual nationals of Japan and another country, choosing Japanese nationality during the two year window after becoming legally Japanese adult (20 years old). These athletes are not legally "naturalized" and they do not go through the naturalization process; they have had a Japanese 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) since birth. Those who chose Japanese nationality by 22 are legally still natural-born, not naturalized.

ice dancing (men/women)

• リードキャサリンマーガレット {RĪDO Kyasarinmāgaretto} (Cathy Reed), a Japanese-American who chose Japanese nationality

Cathy competes with her brother/partner, Chris Reed (リードロバートクリストファー {RĪDO Robātokurisutofā}) for team Japan. Chris decided to choose U.S. nationality before his 22nd birthday. He can still continue to represent Japan with his Japanese national sister in the Olympics and other international competitions because ice dancing allows for couples of mixed nationality.

Japanese-American Allison Reed's new nationality: Georgia

Allison Reed, of the same Reed family, is also an Japanese-American ice dancer who obtained Georgian nationality and has competed first Georgia and then for Israel (the mixed nationality rule allows this because her partner had Israel nationality). While brother-sister teams in pair skating and ice dancing is not uncommon (there were four brother-sister ice dance teams in the 2010 games), having siblings compete against each other at the international level is unusual.

Enjoying and competing in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

Donald Keene was an honorary citizen of Tokyo before he naturalized and became a legal Japanese citizen

Throughout the world, there are all sorts of "honorary" statuses that cities give to living (and dead) people, animals, fictional characters, and even abstract concepts:

• Honorary degrees (i.e. Harvard& Princeton)
• Freedom of the City (also: Key to the City)
• Honorary citizenship (nations and municipalities)
• Honorary/special residency registrations (Japan)

特別住民票 {tokubetsu jūminhyō} (Special Certificate of Residence)