{"id":17062,"date":"2022-06-10T10:59:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T17:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17062"},"modified":"2022-06-14T13:24:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T20:24:20","slug":"kyodo-japan-born-american-files-suit-against-japans-dual-nationality-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17062","title":{"rendered":"Kyodo:  Japan-born American files suit against Japan&#8217;s dual nationality ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Books, eBooks, and more from Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (click on icon):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11452\" title=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Guidebookcover.jpg\" alt=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11335\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/japaneseonlyebookcovertext-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1298\" title=\"Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" alt=\"Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/inappropriate.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8577\" title=\"inappropriatecoverthumb150x226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/inappropriatecoverthumb150x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html#japanese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1700\" title=\"jobookcover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/jobookcover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemabstruso.de\/strawberries\/main.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2735\" title=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sourstrawberriesavatar.jpg\" alt=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?cat=32\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4921\" title=\"debitopodcastthumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/debitopodcastthumb.jpg\" alt=\"debitopodcastthumb\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12473\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-12474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FodorsJapan2014cover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"FodorsJapan2014cover\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<br \/>\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free<br \/>\n&#8220;LIKE&#8221; US on Facebook at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a><br \/>\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/donate.cgi?id=17701\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.newdream.net\/donate4.gif\" alt=\"Donate towards my web hosting bill!\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<i>All donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Hi Blog. \u00a0Here&#8217;s another person challenging Japan&#8217;s ban on dual nationality. \u00a0Her case makes the following circumstances clear:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>If you&#8217;re born in Japan with Japanese blood<\/strong>, you&#8217;re a Japanese citizen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you&#8217;re born in Japan (or overseas) with Japanese and Non-Japanese blood<\/strong>, with proper registry with the GOJ after birth, you&#8217;re a citizen of both countries until age 20. \u00a0Then as per the ban on dual nationality, you have to choose one. \u00a0But if you choose Japanese citizenship, there is no penalty for those who do not give up their foreign nationality. \u00a0As long as the GOJ doesn&#8217;t know, and they don&#8217;t try too hard to find out.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you&#8217;re born in Japan without Japanese blood,<\/strong> you&#8217;re a foreigner unless you naturalize. \u00a0But if you naturalize, you must give up your foreign nationalities. \u00a0(However, I know at least one naturalized Japanese citizen who did not give up their NJ nationality, and still maintains both unbeknownst to the GOJ.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you&#8217;re born in Japan (or overseas) with Japanese blood and then move permanently overseas and take another citizenship<\/strong>, and the GOJ finds out about it, you will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16393\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unilaterally lose your Japanese citizenship<\/a>, as the article below makes clear.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The wild card: \u00a0If you are famous,<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1937\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">like Nobel<\/a> Prize <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=Nobel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">winners<\/a> or famous elites like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=Alberto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alberto Fujimori<\/a>, former authoritarian President of Peru. \u00a0Then you can get your Japanese citizenship back in an eyeblink. \u00a0Again, for purposes of national pride, the rule of law doesn&#8217;t apply: \u00a0&#8220;They&#8217;ll claim us if we&#8217;re famous.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Anyway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=Nationality+Law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Japan&#8217;s Nationality Law makes things unnecessarily arbitrary, racialized, and complicated<\/a>, as <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=NHy9CgAAQBAJ&amp;q=Nationality+Law#v=snippet&amp;q=Nationality%20Law&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">described in more detail in my book &#8220;Embedded Racism<\/a>&#8220;. And it does not pay to be honest. \u00a0Let&#8217;s take a closer look at the case described in Case 4 above. \u00a0Arudou Debito, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n<p><strong>Japan-born American files suit against Japan&#8217;s dual nationality ban<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>KYODO NEWS &#8211; Jun 2, 2022, courtesy of EYS<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/english.kyodonews.net\/news\/2022\/06\/d25c7dd60667-japan-born-american-files-suit-against-japans-dual-nationality-ban.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/english.kyodonews.net\/news\/2022\/06\/d25c7dd60667-japan-born-american-files-suit-against-japans-dual-nationality-ban.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>A Japanese-born American said Thursday she has filed a lawsuit with a Japanese court claiming that the country&#8217;s nationality law, which bans its citizens from also holding a foreign nationality, violates the Constitution.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Yuri Kondo, 75, who currently lives in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan and filed the lawsuit at the Fukuoka District Court, said at a press conference with her legal team that acquiring U.S. citizenship should not have automatically stripped her of her Japanese one.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Kondo, who was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, moved to the United States in 1971 to attend graduate school and began practicing law in Arizona in 1997.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>After becoming a U.S. citizen in 2004, she attempted to renew her Japanese passport in 2017 but her application was rejected. She is currently in Japan on her U.S. passport.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Kondo claims that Article 11 of the nationality law, which stipulates that Japanese citizens automatically lose their nationality upon gaining a foreign nationality, violates the right to pursue happiness and equality as guaranteed by the Constitution.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;Nationality is an important human right, and it is illegal to automatically take it away from someone without their consent,&#8221; she said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16393\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tokyo District Court in January 2021 rejected a similar lawsuit filed by eight men and women residing in Europe, ruling that Japan&#8217;s nationality law is constitutional<\/a>. The plaintiffs have appealed.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0ENDS<\/p>\n<p>======================<br \/>\n<em>Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org&#8217;s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13748\">More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kyodo:  A Japanese-born American said Thursday she has filed a lawsuit with a Japanese court claiming that the country&#8217;s nationality law, which bans its citizens from also holding a foreign nationality, violates the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Yuri Kondo, 75, who currently lives in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan and filed the lawsuit at the Fukuoka District Court, said at a press conference with her legal team that acquiring U.S. citizenship should not have automatically stripped her of her Japanese one. Kondo, who was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, moved to the United States in 1971 to attend graduate school and began practicing law in Arizona in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>After becoming a U.S. citizen in 2004, she attempted to renew her Japanese passport in 2017 but her application was rejected. She is currently in Japan on her U.S. passport. Kondo claims that Article 11 of the nationality law, which stipulates that Japanese citizens automatically lose their nationality upon gaining a foreign nationality, violates the right to pursue happiness and equality as guaranteed by the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>COMMENT:  Let&#8217;s go through just how arbitrary, complicated, and racialized Japan&#8217;s Nationality Law is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,34,5,12,26,4,48,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-exclusionism","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17062"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17070,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17062\/revisions\/17070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}