Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis and/or Jus Soli Provisions

All the nationality laws in East Asia operate through a jus sanguinis structure, with Taiwan, North Korea, and South Korea additionally utilizing a limited jus soli structure. In three states (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) children born to a national parent or parents will be considered a citizen with no distinction made between children born within or outside of the country. The citizenship laws of three states (China and Hong Kong, Mongolia, and North Korea) provide some differential treatment between children born within or outside of the country. It is important to note that China’s nationality law has applied to Hong Kong since 1997. In both Mongolia and North Korea, a child must be born to two citizen parents in order to be a citizen. Children will also become citizens in China and Hong Kong if born in the territory to one citizen parent or outside of the territory to one citizen parent as long as both parents have not settled abroad. For the acquisition of citizenship for children born to one citizen and one foreign citizen in Mongolia, a written agreement from the parents is required.

The extra condition of citizenship by acknowledgement is present in the citizenship laws of Japan and South Korea. Children born to one South Korean citizen and one foreign citizen may gain citizenship by acknowledgement by the citizen parent. While Japan does not require Japanese women who have had a child out of wedlock with a foreign man to acknowledge the birth of their child due to legislation automatically certifying their relationship, Japanese men who have had a child with a foreign woman out of wedlock do have to make an acknowledgement of his relationship with the child in order for the child to gain citizenship by descent.

The application of the citizenship laws in East Asia is further complicated by household registration systems which simultaneously operate. The impact of these systems on the realization of citizenship is specifically notable in China, Japan, and Taiwan. In China and Taiwan, nationals are afforded different rights based on whether they do or do not hold ‘Household Registration’. Only those who hold ‘Household Registration’ have access to complete residential and voting rights in Taiwan. This extra administrative layer complicates the task of mapping laws within these countries as citizenship laws form only a component of a larger web of laws and policies that impact an individual’s ability to gain and prove their citizenship.

East Asia is the only sub-region in the Asia-Pacific without discriminatory provisions present in the citizenship laws of any State.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

No country in East Asia, except Taiwan, provides a simplified or expedited naturalization process for stateless persons. In the Enforcement Rules of the Nationality Act of Taiwan, a stateless person is defined as “a person who is not recognized as the citizen of any country according to the laws of that country”. This aligns with the 1954 Statelessness Convention definition of a stateless person.

Convention, which defines a stateless person as someone “who is not considered as a national by any State under operation of its law”, which notably does not place the burden of proof on the stateless person. Stateless persons are explicitly eligible to apply for naturalization in Mongolia, North Korea, and Taiwan and may be eligible in China if they meet the relevant requirements and in Japan if they meet the requirements for the separate naturalization process for aliens. Provisions for naturalization in China’s Nationality Law also apply to Hong Kong, with foreign nationals or stateless persons able to apply for naturalization. Additionally, Hong Kong utilizes the concept of “right of abode”, which only permanent residents enjoy, providing them with various rights, including the rights to land and stay in Hong Kong, as well as the rights to stand for election in accordance with law. Anyone found to be residing in Hong Kong without permanent residence may be deported from Hong Kong. Non-Chinese citizens are eligible if they have legally entered Hong Kong, ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for at least seven continuous years, and have “taken Hong Kong as their permanent place of residence” or are under 21 years of age and were born in Hong Kong to at least one permanent resident.

In South Korea’s citizenship law, only ‘foreigners’ are mentioned to be eligible for naturalization. While North Korea states that stateless persons are eligible for naturalization, its legislation provides no details on the process of naturalization. Countries which have permanent residence requirements for naturalization, including Japan, Mongolia, and South Korea, all require five years residence prior to application for naturalization. In China, the requirement to show a copy of the applicant’s passport in the application may act as a barrier to stateless persons who are unlikely to have passports. Article 32 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons stipulates that naturalization should be expedited for stateless persons to “reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings”.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is generally not recognized in any of the countries in East Asia. However, South Korea and Taiwan do allow for dual citizenship only in exceptional cases. Taiwan allows dual nationality only for foreign nationals who have made “special contributions to Taiwanese society” and are “high-level foreign professionals” in certain fields. In South Korea, children born to South Korean parents outside the territory of Korea, marriage migrants, naturalized foreigners of outstanding talent, and those who previously held Korean citizenship are eligible to maintain dual citizenship. In Japan and Mongolia, foreign citizens applying for naturalization must first renounce their foreign citizenship, leaving them in an indefinite period of statelessness throughout the application process. In Mongolia, a lack of legal safeguards around renunciation of nationality, and the bar on dual nationality has left many ethnic Kazakhs stateless. South Korea’s legislation provides some protection against this in stipulating that foreign citizens must renounce prior citizenship within one year of receiving South Korean citizenship. Taiwan similarly requires that foreign citizens who are not eligible to keep dual citizenship provide a certificate of loss of previous nationality within one year of being approved for naturalization in Taiwan. If they fail to do so, their naturalized citizenship will be revoked. The renunciation process is not explained in China, Hong Kong, or North Korea. Article 7(1) (a) of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness states that State parties which allow renunciation of citizenship must ensure that “such renunciation shall not result in loss of nationality unless the person concerned possesses or acquires another nationality”.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

South Korea and Hong Kong are the only States in the region party to either of the Stateless Conventions, having ratified the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Three States, China, Japan, and South Korea are all contracting States to the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. All countries in East Asia are party to ICESCR, CEDAW, and CRC.

Despite ratification of CEDAW, South Korea retains a reservation against Article 9 which provides for the equal right to acquire, change or retain nationality for women and the equal right to pass nationality onto their children. The ICCPR is ratified by all states except China, while North Korea is the only country which has not ratified ICERD. In 1997, North Korea attempted to withdraw from the ICCPR; however, this act was rejected by the Secretary-General due to the Covenant’s lack of withdrawal provision.

Reported stateless population in East Asia

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea	–	–	–	–
Hong Kong SAR	–	–	–	–
Japan	709	707	707	508
Mongolia	17	–	17	17
People’s Republic of China	–	–	–	–
Republic of China (Taiwan)	–	–	–	–
Republic of Korea	197	203	202	241
TOTAL	923	910	926	766

Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022

Population

1. Reported Stateless Population

Countries in East Asia collectively reported a stateless population of 766 people to UNHCR in 2022, a decrease of 60 people from reported numbers in 2021. Before 2021, the reported population stayed generally the same since 2019. Mongolia has consistently reported 17 stateless persons to the UNHCR since 2019, excluding that the country did not report any stateless persons in 2020. Three of the seven countries in the region reported small populations — Japan (508), Mongolia (17) and South Korea (241) — while China and Hong Kong reported zero persons and North Korea and Taiwan were not included in the report. While Hong Kong, like China, has not reported a stateless population to UNHCR for the past five years, the region did report one stateless person in 2015. Despite the low figures reported by South Korea to UNHCR, a recent mapping report found that as many 10,032 stateless reasons could be residing within South Korea. UNHCR has specifically noted China as a country in which they have information regarding stateless people but no reliable data. There is also a lack of reliable data in Mongolia and South Korea. While no UNHCR estimates exist for Taiwan, sources state that there could be as many as 10,000 stateless children in the country.

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

Official birth registration statistics for Taiwan are unknown, but all states in East Asia have high reported rates of birth registration between 90-100%. However, the impact of household registration systems prevalent in East Asia and administrative policies complicates the picture, especially for children of irregular migrants. China, South Korea, and to a lesser extent Japan, have notable issues of children of irregular migrants and trafficked persons being unable or unwilling to access birth registration. For example, there may be as many as 30,000 children born in China to North Korean mothers who had been trafficked into China, and 20,000 children of irregular migrants in South Korea who remain unregistered and at risk of statelessness. Due to systemic discrimination, particularly the denial of the right to a passport and freedom of movement, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and other ethnic Muslim minorities in China are also at risk of statelessness. As Taiwan hosts a large population of undocumented migrant workers, children born to migrant workers in Taiwan may be stateless due to a lack of documentation. In Japan, Zainichi Koreans and children of Indochinese refugees from Thailand are also at risk of statelessness.

3. Stateless Refugee

As a subregion, East Asia has a relatively small refugee population compared to other subregions of the Asia-Pacific. For example, Japan reported 9 stateless refugees to the UNHCR in 2022. A newspaper article from 2016 highlighted the growing numbers of stateless children born to refugees in Hong Kong. Many of these refugees lack identification documents, which further contributes to intergenerational statelessness.

4. Undetermined Nationalities

While the reported figures of stateless populations may be low in East Asia, thousands of individuals remain with undetermined nationalities. China’s 2010 census indicated that at least 13 million children lacked household registration (hukou), which prevented them from accessing the full rights of citizens. In Japan’s 2020 census, the nationalities of 131,684 foreigners were categorized as “stateless and name of country not reported.” Japan is the only country in East Asia with English-language and publicly accessible census statistics that include a stateless/undetermined citizenship status of foreigners.

The status of ethnic minority groups in both Japan and Mongolia remains uncertain. In Japan, as many as 26,312 ethnic Koreans are categorized as “citizens of the Korean Peninsula (Korea or Chōsen)” and hold the status of “special permanent residents.” In Mongolia, thousands of ethnic Kazakhs have faced administrative barriers to reacquiring citizenship, which they lost in the early 1990s.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against
Childhood Statelessness

Protections exist in the nationality laws of all seven countries in East Asia which provide an automatic grant of citizenship to children born to stateless parents. In Mongolia, they can access Mongolian citizenship after reaching 16 years of age. Foundlings have the right to citizenship at birth in Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. No protection is provided for foundlings under the citizenship law of China or Hong Kong. Prior to the dissolution of China’s one-child policy, the country had over 500,000 registered orphans; in 2021, this figure had reduced to 190,000. Further, there is a lack of safeguards in Mongolia for children born outside of the territory from becoming stateless in the event that the parents fail to provide the required written agreement in order to gain citizenship. Article 1 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness states that State parties “shall grant nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless” either “by birth, by operation of law, or upon an application”.

2. Citizenship Stripping

After World War II, there were massive displacements of people across East Asia. Following Japan’s defeat in the war, ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese residing in Japan transitioned from being colonial subjects to foreigners. This led to approximately 52,000 ethnic Koreans losing their Japanese citizenship. These ethnic Koreans couldn’t return to Korea due to division and political instability there. As a result, around 250,000 people in this situation chose not to apply for South Korean citizenship and remained stateless as they were also unable to obtain Japanese citizenship. In 2021, more than 26,000 persons and their descendants still have unresolved citizenship statuses.

In both Taiwan and South Korea, foreign spouses whose marriages are deemed to be ‘sham’ or ‘fraudulent’ have faced consequences such as losing their citizenship and becoming stateless. This is because both countries require individuals to renounce their former nationality before acquiring the nationality of their spouse.

In China, individuals convicted of a criminal offense can lose their Chinese citizenship and face deportation. Similarly, in Taiwan, if authorities determine that a marriage between a foreign spouse and a citizen is fraudulent, the government has the authority to revoke the citizenship of the foreign spouse, potentially leaving them stateless.

3. Administrative Barriers

The impact of household registration systems on accessing citizenship and realizing associated rights is significant in East Asia. After World War II, ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese in Japan transitioned from colonial subjects to foreigners, leading to around 52,000 ethnic Koreans losing Japanese citizenship. China faces challenges with low birth registration rates for adopted children, migrant children, girls, those exceeding family size limits, and those affected by the hukou system. In China, Japan, and South Korea, household registration systems pose significant barriers for children of migrants, ethnic minorities, and those with uncertain nationalities, making it difficult for them to access citizenship and related rights.

Birth registration in China is notably low for specific groups such as adopted children, migrant children, girls, those who exceed the permitted family size, and individuals affected by the hukou system. Additionally, there’s a crucial need to ensure that births of ethnic Kazakh children are properly registered in Mongolia. Despite South Korea reporting a 100% birth registration rate, access to birth registration remains limited or unavailable for children born to foreign parents, undocumented parents, and stateless parents in the country, thus putting these children at risk of statelessness.

Birth registration rates of the countries in East Asia

* No reported rates available.
Source: “Birth and Death Registration Completeness” (UN Statistics Division, April 2023); Data Warehouse,” UNICEF DATA, https://data.unicef.org/resources/data_explorer/unicef_f/

4. Requirement of Birth Registration for Citizenship Acquisition

In both Japan and Mongolia, a birth certificate is evidence of citizenship. There was a lack of sufficient data to determine documents which prove citizenship in South Korea and North Korea. Birth registration in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan is not a required document for acquisition of nationality; however, children would not be able to enjoy full citizenship rights without birth registration as it is a part of the respective household registration systems which determine nationality rights.

East Asia

Overview

Law