Japanese Citizenship System

I find the Japanese Citizenship System is interesting.

Many times I get asked by friends and family to explain the Japanese Citizenship System but since I've never experienced it my self, I have trouble getting my facts completely straight. I just saw this post by a guy named Peter who lives in Japan and owns a very successful business. I read his blog quite often for some interesting inside information and So I thought everyone I know should read this post he made, for it explains the system in good detail.


Peter:
Last time I talked about Donald Keene, the Japanese scholar and translator who came to Japan and took Japanese citizenship, and I thought I'd expand on that a bit. It's quite easy for residents of Japan to become naturalized citizens if they desire it, with the basic rules being five years of consecutive residence in Japan, a history of good behavior, and basic Japanese language skills. In the past anyone wanting Japanese citizenship was required to legally take a Japanese name in officially-designated kanji characters.  While I'm all in favor of writing Western names in kanji characters , this requirement led to strained relations with Japan's large Korean minority, who maintained South or North Korean nationality in part because they were insulted by the idea of taking a Japanese name. While most countries including the U.S. have no issue with allowing dual citizenship, Japan officially requires that anyone desiring to be naturalized renounce citizenship in any other country; however this appears to be a classic case of tatemae (a facade, a social rule that's ignored by everyone in practice), and the requirement is not enforced in practice. Incidentally, I live in Japan on a permanent residence visa (eijuken), not bothering to get Japanese citizenship because, as my wife points out, I'm more interesting as an American than a Japanese who's is bad at kanji. (If you have more questions about possibly living in Japan, there's a handbook for that .)

March 11th Anniversary

This Sunday marks the first anniversary of the terrible 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis which caused so much pain and loss of life in the Touhoku region of Japan. The quake was the strongest ever recorded here, moving the country 2.4 meters towards North America and slowing the Earth's rotation slightly. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, and if it had only faced the quake, it would have come through with flying colors thanks to its excellent building codes. It was the unprecedented waves that did the real damage, an unstoppable wall of water that reached as high as 40 meters (133 feet) and stretched 10 km inland in places. Now the names of towns like Kuji, Ofunato and Namie live in infamy as regions which were greatly damaged by the disaster -- in the single hardest-hit area, half the town of Minami-sanriku's 18,000 inhabitants wer e carried away by the waters.

While March 11 marked a terrible tragedy, there were bright spots, too. Television images of people calling out for loved ones, fearing the worst yet being reunited with their family members in the end. A baby, found alive and unhurt in the midst of so much destruction. One happy tale was the "Miracle of Kamaishi," a town in windswept Iwate Prefecture that had strictly adhered to a regiment of disaster preparedness drills in its schools when most other towns were lulled into a sense of security by their offshore breakwaters. As a result, 98.8% of the town's 2900 children were able to evacuate safely. The aftermath of the destruction was touching, too, as the entire world moved to help Japan get back on her feet, from the U.S. military's "Operation Tomodachi" relief mission to the huge amount of help from the Red Cross and people like you. The popular Japanese picture sharing site Pixiv  was filled with images  of support by artists from Japan and all around the world. Although the new Japanese tourism slogan of "Japan. Thank you."  is somewhat cryptic and odd-sounding, the country is very thankful for the help she received.

AKB48 are "Gatekeepers" for Suicide Prevention 

One of the many challenges Japan faces in the 21st century is getting a handle on its suicide rate, which has remained steady at about 30,000 per year over the past decade, about the same as in the U.S. despite Japan having less than half the population. Don't worry though, because The Government Has a Plan: it's designated popular singing group AKB48 as the official "Gatekeepers" in a campaign to draw attention to the problem and suggest ways we can all help. While some are critical of the new initiative, dubbed GKB48 (the letters stand for "GateKeeper Basic," though they remind Japanese people of the word gokiburi, or cockroach), at least it's a start, as long as more concrete steps are taken. Part of Japan's suicide problem comes from differing social mores -- suicide has at times been seen in a positive light, a way to regain honor and a source of romantic stories about lovers' suicide (shinju) during the Edo Period, for example.

Since we are coming up to the one year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear plant disaster in Japan, I decided to post this documentary from the BBC about it from the children's point of view.

If you have an hour to watch, I would highly recommend it.