Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "TAKASHii"
channel.
-
1
-
1
-
Japan used to allow natural-born dual-citizenship until 1985, as long as the father is a Japanese citizen. So people like President Fujimori was/is legally a natural-born Japanese citizen. Under Jus Sanguinis, he was a Japanese national born outside of Japan.
As the number of international marriages increased, and the number of natural-born dual-citizenship increased, Japanese Citizenship Law was revised in 1984 to ban dual-citizens. The law was also revised so that children of Japanese women who married foreigners were also able to inherit Japanese citizenship. (Many of them were perceived as "War Brides" after WWII, so Japanese society didn't want their children to have Japanese citizenship prior to the change.)
I have no idea whether citizenship rules have anything to do with discrimination. From our perspective, if you desire to be a Japanese citizen, go through the naturalization process and become a Japanese national. We have had naturalized Members of Parliament who were formerly Uzbek, Uyghur, Finn, or Korean. FYI, we have zero desire to make the same mistakes as Europe when it comes to multi-culturalism. But we already have ethnic centers like China-town, Korea-town, or Burmese in Takada-no-baba.
1
-
1
-
The reality is your kids will not face the same problems in Japan because their father will be Japanese, which means they'll have a Japanese surname. If you live in Japan, you already know that Japanese society is structured around paternal lineage.
Children inherit their father's surname, and they are registered in the father's family tree (i.e. KOSEKI). From family functions, inheritance, family traditions, or where and with whom to sit in weddings/funerals...the paternal lineage is the deciding factor. As such, Japan didn't issue natural-born citizenship to children of foreign fathers until 1985 except for single mothers.
For lack of better words, Japanese society traditionally didn't perceive children of foreign fathers to be Japanese until a few decades ago. This traditional view that has been around since...forever is one of the source of the treatment toward half-kids. In school, Japanese kids will instinctively differentiate people with non-Japanese surnames. It's difficult to assume somebody with a surname like SMITH to be Japanese. It's also why many people will choose a Japanese surname when they naturalize to Japanese citizenship. They understand that a Japanese surname makes all the difference to be accepted in Japanese society.
Your children will be accepted by Japanese society just like SAKAI Gohtoku who has a German mother, TAKAHASHI Ran who has a half-American mother, MURUFOSHI Koji who has a Romanian mother, SAWAJIRI Erika who has French-Algerian mother, SHIROTA Yu who has a Spanish mother, or HAYAMI Mokomichi who has a Filipino mother.
Conversely, half-kids with foreign fathers such as "Aaron Wolf" often struggle in being accepted in Japan with their name and identity, because Japanese society often associates the child with the father's nationality. (He's a JUDO Gold Medalist representing Japan.)
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@lookitskazzy Each person's situation is different. Men and women are treated differently in the process as well. Income requirements depends if the person is the "rice-winner" of the family or not. Language fluency, education and skill level, tax records and social security payments, criminal and traffic records, and most importantly whether the Ministry of Justice can tolerate that person to live among Japanese people or not is being reviewed. And if you're married to a Japanese citizen, the Japanese spouse and his/her income, legal history, education-level, and tax records are also scrutinized. (For instance, I highly doubt the government wishes to issue Permanent Visa to foreign wives of Yakuza members.)
Historically, the Permanent Visa and Naturalization schemes were intended for foreign wives of Japanese husbands, or Foreign mothers of Japanese citizens. (Japan didn't issue citizenship to children of foreign fathers prior to 1985.) As such, if the Japanese husband has a stable income, the foreign wife can be a stay-at-home mom with no income and still receive Permanent Visa or Naturalization. However, income requirements become more strict if it's a foreign husband and Japanese wife, foreigner married to another foreigner, or a single foreigner, because your income is needed to support the household.
In practice, Japanese Descendants as well as children of foreign-nationals raised/educated in Japan are given preferential treatment. But the 3 most crucial requirement is written in the Ministry of Justice guidelines. The order is no accident.
(1) 素行が善良であること
(2) 独立の生計を営むに足りる資産または技能を有すること
(3) 永住が日本の利益になると認められること
And regardless of the visa type, the Japanese government will let each foreign national clearly know how they're perceived in Japan in the length of the visa. Foreign/international students who graduate Japanese university will almost automatically receive a 5-year visa from the beginning. Foreign spouses that are trusted by the government will get a long visa for their spousal visa as well.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@Ssumitani Japanese people share a common language, culture, and identity. Language is culture, and culture is religion. So if you don't know how to read/write/speak Japanese, there is no way people in Japan will consider you to be Japanese (even if both of your parents are from Japan).
Naturally, you'll be treated differently if you live in Japan and aren't fluent in Japanese. And it's not condescension that I feel when I meet Japanese Descendants who cannot speak Japanese, it's more a sense of pity that they are disconnected from their ancestral land, language, or culture. They cannot read Japanese literature, and understand music or TV. They will never understand the identity, history, or the feeling of visiting the tombs of your ancestors going back generations. (If you cannot read Japanese, you won't even able to find your ancestor's tombs anyway or speak with relatives at family functions.)
The reality is Japanese society will almost always value, respect, and appreciate somebody from say Iran, Myanmar, China, Turkey, New Zealand, Panama, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, France, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Hungary, Russia, Georgia, etc, etc...who has near-native fluency in Japanese language and culture over a Japanese Descendant who cannot even read Japanese news articles. We've always had elected officials that are naturalized citizens. We have Buddhist monks and Shinto priests from other countries. These days a 1/3 of our top Sumo Wrestlers (i.e. MAKU-UCHI) are from Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), Bulgaria, Georgia, Brazil, etc. They are more "Japanese" than most Japanese in Japan, protecting and preserving Japanese traditions and culture. The most popular post-war YOKOZUNA was TAIHO (大鵬), and he was half-Ukrainian born in KARAFUTO.
1
-
1
-
1
-
@Historian212 Frankly, if they have a foreign-father, experience may be somewhat different because the family name is often non-Japanese, automatically differentiating them from rest of the population since birth. (Nobody assumes somebody called SMITH to be Japanese.) In the entertainment industry, it was well-known that successful half-Japanese celebrities--such as SAWAJIRI Erika, SHIROTA Yu, or TAKAHASHI Maryjune--have Japanese fathers. I don't know if this is due to upbringing, culture, or genetic admixture. For whatever reason, they tend to match the beauty preference of the Japanese public.
Since Japan only uses Jus Sanguinis citizenship rule, location of birth is not relevant. You can be born in Egypt and still be a Japanese citizen. However, until legal changes in 1985 children of foreign-fathers didn't qualify for automatic Japanese citizenship at birth (unless the mother was single or divorced). In other words, Japanese government and society didn't perceive them to be natural-born Japanese.
This perception has continued since ancient times. In Japanese traditions, we mostly use the paternal family names, religions, and tombs (unless adopted into a different family). The children are a member of the father's KOSEKI or family registry (unless they are children of single-mothers and divorcees), and they will be treated as a member of the paternal family for funerals too. Thus, if you have a foreign father, those traditions may not be inherited, possibly making them disconnected from Japanese culture, traditions, and identity.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@beatlessteve1010 That's a very interesting family history. Your Japanese writing is native-level for somebody who was adopted to a foreign family. In Japan we were historically organized by clans and identified as members of our father's clan/family since ancient times, at least from around 古墳時代, so around 3rd or 4th century. I suspect the practice is much older, but that's about when written records on various clans start.
People were known as "XYZ of 〇〇氏/clan", which is why we still use the word "氏名" when we refer to people's names. It literally means Clan Name. To date, we mostly inherit the KOSEKI, surname, tombs, religious sect, traditions, and land from the paternal lineage. As such, only those with a Japanese father have been perceived to be Japanese. It's ones of the reasons why the government didn't issue Japanese citizenship to children of foreign fathers born before 1985.
And this perception, is why half-kids with foreign fathers may be treated differently from half-kids with Japanese fathers. Basically, you need a Japanese surname to be considered Japanese in Japan. It's not about citizenship.
1
-
You are what you decide to be. We tried to assimilate and integrate Koreans in the past, but that didn't work out so well. Korean War refugees and their descendants are still in Japan. After so many decades, many of them still don't wish to return to Korea, yet they also refuse to become Japanese. We allowed them to stay in Japan on humanitarian grounds, but this terrible experience is why Japan doesn't take in any more refugees.
The irony is "Zainichi Koreans" mostly have their 本籍 in the south (primarily in 全羅道 & 慶尚道), which historically used to be linguistically, ethnically, culturally, and politically Japonic in ancient times. Proto-Korean speakers migrated to the peninsula from Manchuria. Some of the Japonic speakers fled to Japan, but most of them were absorbed into by the conquering northern culture, around 4-7th century. This explains why Korean language has both a Mongolian pitch accent, but retains some Japonic phonetics. It's a fusion language that experienced heavy sinicization in later centuries.
Descendants of Proto-Korean speakers mostly have unique Y-DNA Haplogroup C, which makes up about 20% of modern South Korean males. This admixture increases in North Korea. It's also common among Manchus, Mongols, and Turkic tribes. They used to be semi-nomadic horse riders, while Japonic residents in the south were mostly rice farmers. In other words, indigenous Japonic people in the south became "Koreans" over the centuries.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@awsnie I've worked with enough foreigners in Japan to know that some people have much easier time in integrating socially and adapting culturally, while others face enormous struggles to be accepted by Japanese people.
Fluency in language and culture is a pre-requisite, but my impression is that there are certain personal traits and individual characteristics that would be more receptive and respected among Japan society. We'd often say somebody with a good personality and temperament as 性格が良い, and it is highly valued among Japanese society, perhaps more than anything. This will show in how one speaks, choice of words, manners, behaviors, mindset, dresses, etc.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
I would add religion and history to your list. Japanese culture and Japanese religion are so old and intertwined, nobody knows whether culture stems from religious practice and perspectives, or if Japanese culture was simply crystallized into Japanese religion. Either way, it dictates how Japanese people behave, interact, think, or even how society is organized. This cultural barrier is very difficult to overcome for some foreign-nationals, including those from neighboring countries, yet for others it's almost instinctive and adjust and adapt without any effort. They feel relaxed and comfortable in Japan like a native. I suspect the lady working in IT is one of those who liked tranquility and organization of Japan. Her mannerism, speech, and dress does match Japanese cultural preference.
1
-
1
-
@Kawayoporu You're correct there is no formal registry for Japanese Descendants. There is also no legal definition on how many generations or what percentage of blood qualify as Japanese Descendants. So it is a guessing game.
Japan's Foreign Ministry (MOFA) guesstimates total 3.6 million NIKKEI-JIN world-wide, of which 2.1 million are living in Central and South America. Breakdown of estimate: Brazil 1.9 million; US 1.33 million; Peru 100,000; Canada 88,000; Argentina 65,000; Australia 57,000; Mexico 20,000; Bolivia 14,000; Paraguay 10,000; Chile 3,000; Colombia; 2,000; Cuba 1,200; Venezuela 820; DR 800; Uruguay 460.
As for who should be counted as a Nikkei-Jin is a difficult question. 3rd Gen (SANSEI) can be minimum 1/4 Japanese by blood, but 4th Gen (YONSEI) can be minimum 1/8. 5th Generation can be minimum 1/16, so where to draw the line is not clear. What often happened in Hawaii was that some Japanese Descendants inter-married with Hawaiians, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and White settlers in the past few decades...so they now can identify as any of their ancestors.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@xoseoa It makes me happy that you're fluent in Japanese and proud of your heritage. The more time you spend in Japan, the more local you'll become (whether you like it or not). The opposite happens too, when Japanese nationals live outside of Japan they start to change/adapt. Everything from choice of clothing, hairstyle, mannerism, make-up, facial gestures, body language, food preference...all those small things start to slowly diverge.
Your current assumption is that your physical appearance is why you're initially treated like an "outsider." (Being assumed you're an "insider," without being able to speak Japanese is tough too.) While I have no idea how Japanese/Western you may look, I have a strong suspicion that locals are judging from the other stuff. Eventually, you'll end up just like the rest of us. You'll be able to identify resident/visitor by how they walk, behave, dress, talk, etc.
I actually think it's rather presumptuous to assume that you'll be able to fit right into Japan without having ever lived in Japan. This process of cultural assimilation (i.e. "Japanization") will take a few years minimum. This is a common struggle for children of Japanese nationals who've spent their entire lives abroad.
Perhaps you know of these people. While not every one of them has a typical Japanese appearance, none of them will get the "outsider" treatment because most of them have been in Japan for a very long time. For example, Arashi Rina is half-Iranian, Michibata-sisters are half-Argentine, Haraka Christine is half-Swiss, Takigawa Christel is half-French, and Becky is half-British...and they carry themselves with Japanese aesthetics and beauty standards.
After some time in Japan, you'll know what I mean. I'm sorry that you're living in a sauna like the rest of us. I always recommend spring/autumn for visiting Japan.
1