Sunday Post on September 6th, 2020

Residents in West and South area in Japan, how is the weather? Some might be already evacuated. Please be caution and try to make actions in advance always.

Nowadays, almost everyday new announcements are coming out from Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and so on. On the other hand, skill tests are newly scheduled in and out of Japan. So my office is busy to follow those new moving to share with you at the same time doing our routine job as immigration lawyer.

Sometimes I missed to notice the new announcements for a while. I want to share one of them with you today. It is about “naturalization” in other word getting a Japanese passport.

The new announcement came out in the beginning of August in the site of Tokyo bureau of justice. And I had not noticed it till recently. The way of naturalization procedure at Tokyo bureau of justice changed a little.

Let me take this opportunity to explain rough idea of naturalization procedure.

As requirements for permanent residency application became stricter, naturalization might be easier for someone than getting PR.

For naturalization, there are several requirements as well as PR application. But income, health insurance and pension matters are not so much strictly required as PR application. However unique and the hardest part is Japanese language skill. You need to speak/read/write Japanese as 2nd or 3rd grader level at elementary school including 300 kanji.

The procedure is taken at Bureau of Justice in your location not at immigration. So people who are staying in Tokyo, it is Tokyo Bureau of Justice at Kudanshita in the center of Tokyo.

Basic procedure is same for any location:

1. Call the Bureau to make the appointment for the first interview.

2. After interview, if interviewer recognize your situation and language level is ok for the further examination, you are handed the list of requirements.

At some bureau, you need to take Japanese language at first.

3. You gather all requirements and visit there again. Sometime twice and more.

Once all requirements are ok, they accept your application.

4. Long examination period like a year. You are called for main interview and language test if necessary.

5. Result

The new change at Tokyo bureau is:

You need to bring the filled questionnaire at the first interview. If you don’t understand what is written there or how to write it in Japanese( not necessarily all with Kanji), you are not ready to apply.

It is just first document you need to bring there. For naturalization application, you need to prepare lots of documents and all should be written in Japanese. So for most foreign residents, it is hard to proceed by yourself. You need professional support from immigration lawyers like us.

If you have enough language skill and are interested in becoming Japanese citizen, please contact us. My office provides support nation widely from Okinawa to Hokkaido. Of course there are more requirements you need to satisfy for naturalization. Let’s discuss it in person.

Our office is trying to release necessary/ useful information for foreign residents in Japan promptly everyday. Please follow our FB page and share it with your family/community. And don’t forget my Youtube. Ongoing series is for PR application.

Long post again on Sunday morning. Thank you for reading till end.

Anyway, residents in South/West area in Japan, please stay safe.

Happy and peaceful Sunday to everybody!!