Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus sanguinis Provisions

Japan’s citizenship laws operate through a jus sanguinis structure. According to Japan’s Nationality Law, children born to a Japanese national parent shall be considered a Japanese national, with no distinction between children born within or outside of the national boundaries. If the father of a child, who was a Japanese citizen, died before the child’s birth, the child will be a citizen by descent.A child born in the territory of Japan to two stateless persons or to parents who are unknown will be a citizen of Japan.

Another acquisition method, citizenship by acknowledgement, exists in Japan. Under Japanese law, a child born to a Japanese mother and a foreign father will become a citizen due to the fact that Japanese law establishes the relationship of the mother and child automatically at birth. However, for children born to Japanese fathers and a foreign mother, an acknowledgement is required from the citizen father. Due to a 2008 Supreme Court judgement, children born to a non-Japanese father and a Japanese parent can now gain citizenship if the parents are out of wedlock by acknowledgement of the relationship by the citizen father after the birth of the child. Before the judgement, children born to a non-Japanese mother and citizen father out of wedlock would not be eligible for citizenship unless the father acknowledged the legitimacy of the child before the child’s birth. A child can be presumed to be born in wedlock if the parents have been previously married and the child is born 200 days or more after the start of such marriage or 300 days or less after the divorce of such parents. A child born out of wedlock to a non-Japanese mother and Japanese father may obtain Japanese nationality through acknowledgement after the birth if the child is under 18 years of age, a notification is made to the Minister of Justice, and the father or mother who has made the acknowledgement is a citizen at the time of the child’s birth as well as is currently a citizen. If the Japanese father does not voluntarily acknowledge a child (nin’i ninchi), then the child (or their agent) can seek compulsory acknowledgement (kyousei ninchi), a process to procure acknowledgement through arbitration, or if unsuccessful, a lawsuit.

There is no statutory protection such as a grant of residence status or nationality for stateless persons based on the fact that they are stateless. Thus, stateless persons in Japan do not enjoy freedom of movement (Article 26 of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons) or the benefit of expulsion prohibition (Article 31 of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons). A 2015 report supported by UNHCR outlined the “convergence and divergence” between the statelessness conventions and Japanese citizenship laws and administrative policies, finding major gaps in the laws of Japan (including the lack of a definition of ‘statelessness’ or ‘stateless person’).Stateless persons who do not have residence status in Japan (‘Non-resident Stateless Persons’) are deprived of nearly all of the rights and protections provided to persons with Japanese nationality or residence status. On the other hand, stateless persons with residence status (Resident Stateless Persons) can enjoy the benefits of social insurance including pension and health insurance, financial support for disabled persons or childcare, and subsidies for residence. Even for Resident Stateless Persons, there is a risk of receiving a deportation order upon being deemed to fulfil certain deportable conditions. Practical difficulty in enforcing such deportation orders often result in such stateless persons remaining in Japan with an unstable status without any assurance of right to stay in Japan or to avoid further deportation. A 2017 report supported by UNHCR showed that with the lack of a legal definition of statelessness, Japan administratively does not follow classification of stateless persons in accordance with international law which can lead to lesser reliance on official statistics due to duplication of numbers or can lead to misclassification.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

A process for naturalization is available for foreign nationals, stipulated by Article 5 of Japan’s Nationality Law. In order to be eligible, the applicant must have continuously resided in Japan for at least five years, must not have nationality of another country, and have never been involved in terrorist activities, among other requirements. There is no naturalization process available explicitly to refugees or stateless persons.

However, there is a provision stipulating a separate naturalization process for ‘aliens’. ‘Aliens’ can be eligible for this process if they have residence in Japan for three consecutive years and are by birth the child of a Japanese citizen, they have residence in Japan for three consecutive years and was born in Japan, or who has had residence in Japan for ten consecutive years. Therefore, to obtain a legal residency status in Japan, one would need to pursue recognition of refugee status.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is not recognized in Japan. If a Japanese citizen acquires citizenship elsewhere, they will lose their Japanese citizenship. Japanese nationals possessing another nationality must make a choice on which citizenship to take, and deprive themselves of the other nationality.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

While Japan is not a party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, it has acceded to all other relevant human rights treaties without any relevant reservations. In 2018 concluding observations by the CERD Committee, concerns were raised regarding Koreans who remain as foreign nationals after multiple generations of living in Japan and, as a result, are unable to vote or be public servants or engage in decision making. Further, the Committee expressed concerns about the fact that Korean schools in Japan “do not receive support from the High School Tuition Support Fund” and that Korean women experience pervasive discrimination based on their nationality and gender. Due to its ratification of the CERD, Japan is obligated to protect persons in its territory from discrimination based on nationality or legal status as well as ensure their equal civil rights regardless of nationality or legal status.

Concluding observations by the CRC Committee in 2019 also recommended that Japan strengthen its Nationality Law in order to better protect against de jure statelessness, to grant citizenship at birth to children who would otherwise be stateless, and to ensure that children of irregular migrants in particular are registered at birth. It was further recommended that Japan develop a statelessness determination procedure (SDP) to “properly identify and protect stateless children”. As a party to the CRC, Japan is bound to ensure that all births in its territory are registered immediately.

In its 2017 UPR, Japan was recommended to accede to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Although the Japanese government has reported that it recognises the importance of taking necessary measures for stateless people, it has not taken any specific measures so far.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties

Country	Stateless 1	Stateless 2	Refugee	ICCPR	ICESCR	ICERD	CRC	CEDAW
Japan

Signifies that the country is a party to the convention

Stateless 1 – 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Signifies that the country is not a party to the convention

Stateless 2 – 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

Japan has shown fluctuations in the reported statistics on stateless individuals over the past few years. The country has the highest reported stateless population in East Asia, with 508 stateless persons reported to UNHCR in 2022, a decrease of 199 persons from 2021 and 2020, when the country reported 707 stateless persons. Many of the reported stateless population in Japan are children of irregular migrants and foundling children.

It is estimated that the actual number of stateless persons in Japan is far larger than the above numbers reflect as the number of stateless persons in Japan under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate only reflects cases of those recognized by the Japanese government. UNHCR’s representatives in Japan have pointed out that the actual number of stateless persons in Japan is not accurately captured by the official estimates due to the lack of consistent definition for “statelessness” or “stateless person” and possibility of duplication among various estimates.

UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Japan	709	707	707	508

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

A child born to foreign parents in the territory of Japan may be at risk of statelessness if they are not eligible for citizenship elsewhere due to gaps in citizenship legislation. Children born to migrants and abandoned children risk statelessness due to presumed links to foreign nations which can, at times, undermine the legal protection for such children recognised in Japanese laws.

Historical context and legal frameworks suggest that certain populations, particularly Zainichi Koreans, persons of Korean ethnic descent permanently residing in Japan, are at a higher risk for statelessness in Japan. This is especially true for those who chose not to apply for South Korean nationality in the 1960s. While many Zainichi Koreans have naturalized as Japanese citizens since the 1990s, to this day their legal status remains complex, and the application process is intricate and requires renouncing any dual citizenship they may hold.

Individuals who are the children of Indochinese refugees from Thailand escaping the first Indochina War to live in Japan are also at a high risk of statelessness. Many of these refugees’ children were born and brought up in Thailand but it is nearly impossible for them to trace their roots or obtain relevant documents, making it challenging to prove ties to Vietnam, Laos, or Thailand. A number of these individuals resort to illegal entry into Japan to find work but are rendered stateless.

3. Stateless Refugee

In 2022, among the 17,406 refugees in Japan according to UNHCR’s mandate, the Japanese government reported 9 stateless refugees to UNHCR. As noted above, while Japan is a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, its domestic laws do not provide a definition for statelessness. The unique status of stateless refugees in Japan has however been recognised and examined by the courts of Japan.

4. Undetermined Nationalities

In Japan’s 2020 census, the nationality of 131,684 foreigners in Japan was categorized as “stateless and name of country not reported”. The discrepancy between the number of such “stateless and name of country not reported” persons from the number of UNHCR-identified stateless persons may be explained by the fact that the former number includes individuals with undetermined nationality or who did not report their nationality (but may nonetheless be recognized as nationals). Japan is the only country in East Asia with publicly accessible census statistics available in English on the citizenship status of foreigners.

While not recognised as stateless persons by the Japanese government or UNHCR, a major group within Japan whose nationality status remains unresolved is the children of ethnic Koreans who currently hold the categorisation of “citizens of the Korean Peninsula (Korea or Chōsen)”. This population group may opt to claim South Korean citizenship or seek Japanese citizenship through naturalization and until they do so are considered to be “special permanent residents” which enables their access to services and temporary travel documents. Of the over 800,000 registered Koreans in Japan, 25,358 persons remain registered as Chōsen in 2022.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Causes of Statelessness

The context of statelessness in Japan has been quite extensively studied with a series of mapping reports commissioned by UNHCR having been undertaken between 2010 and 2017 as well as a number of independent articles published in English and Japanese. Within identified groups of stateless persons in Japan, in particular, children are affected by conflict of nationality laws and children of unregistered migrants and abandoned children are particularly affected.

2. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Under the Nationality Law of Japan, children born in Japan to stateless parents and foundling children born in Japan are considered nationals. However, research has shown that abandoned children of migrant workers, mixed-status families and multigeneration translational families are at times presumed to possess foreign nationality or have links to foreign states and are in turn denied the protection from these provisions. A survey undertaken by the Japan Immigration agency in 2020 found that the majority of stateless children in Japan were stateless as a result of procedural issues and failures to provide adequate documentation.

3. Citizenship Stripping

Following the end of the Second World War, and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean peninsula approximately 52,000 ethnic Koreans were stripped of Japanese citizenship. Some of these individuals were subsequently recorded as overseas nationals of South Korea, while others received the status as Chōsen (partially due to Japan’s rejection of recognizing North Korea’s statehood). As noted above, 25,358 persons retain the status of Chōsen as of 31 December 2022.

Ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese persons who are Japanese citizens have had their citizenship stripped in some cases. Since Korea and Taiwan ceased to be considered as a part of Japan by the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, the Japanese government issued a notification to Japanese courts that ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese shall be deemed to no longer hold Japanese citizenship unless they have certain special relationships with Japanese nationals. A number of cases have commenced in Japanese courts seeking to retain the Japanese citizenship of affected persons. For example, the Supreme Court of Japan found that a child between a Korean father and Japanese mother, for which the Korean father acknowledged paternity before the amendment of the Nationality Law in 1950 shall obtain Chōsen nationality and lose Japanese nationality. On the other hand, the Supreme Court of Japan found that considering such a child’s paternity was acknowledged after the amendment of the Nationality Law in 1950, before the Treaty of Peace with Japan came into effect in April 1952, they shall not lose their Japanese nationality.

Ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese persons who are Japanese citizens have had their citizenship stripped in some cases.

A new amendment to the Nationality Law, which will come into force from 1 April 2024, stipulates that a child may be deprived of his or her Japanese citizenship when there is a fact which contradicts the acknowledgment from the father in the case of children born to a non-citizen mother and citizen father. There is no time limit to such deprivation. The amended paragraph is controversial as it jeopardizes the Japanese nationality of certain children and could result in them becoming stateless. There is opposition to the introduction of the new amended, which will add a Paragraph 3 to Article 3 of the Law. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called for action to prevent children becoming stateless such as establishing a limitation period beyond which an acquired nationality cannot be withdrawn.

4. Administrative Barriers

The documents required for application for naturalization, particularly for proving nationality, may present a barrier to accessing citizenship through naturalization. Documents that prove nationality and family relationships of the applicant generally must be issued by a government official of the country of the applicant’s nationality. This requirement could present a barrier for an applicant who may not possess or be able to obtain an acceptable version of such documentation. In addition, applicants will be required to demonstrate a certain level of Japanese proficiency. The application documentation and consultation or interview will also be conducted in Japanese, which may present a barrier for certain applicants. Japan reported a 100% birth registration rate to UNICEF in 2022.

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