Jul 30, 2026
What are the pros and cons of Japanese Citizenship for you?
Most of the people I know here are foreign residents, have foreign family members, or have foreign coworkers, friends or employees. A handful of those have become Japanese citizens. We've been chatting about things like ethnic identity and Japanese citizenship. I don't plan to become a citizen, but it made me wonder, what are the pros and cons for changing your citizenship? Is it something you've given any thought to? (What might make you consider it?)
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on Jul 31
I wouldn't, solely because of the requirement to renounce my own citizenship. I'd still want to have the option to permanently live in Australia if the time comes that it feels like that's the right move. We do have some friends here who have since got citizenship, but they are from Syria originally. I think a big part of the desire for citizenship for them was stability (understandable, of course). I think the only thing that made me consider if my family and I should go down that route was during COVID, when citizens were treated very differently to visa holders or even permanent residents in terms of ability to come and go.
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on Jul 31
On that note, I do think that the passport power of certain countries is probably a deciding factor for some people as well: https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php Based on that, there's not a huge difference between Australia and Japan. But for my Syrian friends, there was a HUGE difference in passport power. Going from almost the worst, to one of the best!
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on Jul 31
I have given it some thought in the past - if I ever do it, it will be when I am old and frail and don't plan to travel to Europe anymore! What triggered that thought was seeing an older foreign lady, who was very frail, in the Visa Office the last time I was renewing my visa. It made me think. It had never even come in to my mind until I saw that lady struggling in the visa office. I am very proudly Irish, will always be Irish in my heart and soul, but the chances of us moving back to Ireland are very slim. If at any time I think becoming a citizen here will make life a LOT easier, I will think about it again.
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on Jul 31
More food for thought - I have a Chinese friend who applied - she had submitted all forms and done all the essential preparation, convinced it was the right way to go. On the morning of March 11th, 2011, they rang her to confirm that she wanted to go through with her application, she said yes. Then the earthquake happened - she rang them that afternoon and got a very nice and understanding guy who let her withdraw her application because she'd got in just in the nick of time to withdraw it. She went back to China for months. She's back in Japan now but says she will never apply for citizenship again. It's useful to have a backup country! Especially when one of your countries is as disaster prone as Japan!
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on Jul 31
@BigfamJapan that is a very good point and I can see why people (myself included) would want that backup. I do wonder if Japan will ever change and accept dual nationalities?
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on Aug 1
@genkidesu I'm already a dual citizen, Canadian and British. If I were to commit to naturalizing as a Japanese citizen, I'd have to close the door on those two passports. One thought about passport power - When it comes to worldwide travel freedom, Japan's number 2. Canada and the UK are in the top 10, which means low-hassle travel to the places I want to go. I'm deeply grateful for this freedom.
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on Aug 2
@TonetoEdo that's likewise how I feel about Australia, we rank pretty highly for passport power and I feel very fortunate. I wouldn't want to shut the door on Canadian or British passports either, if I had those!
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on Aug 3
@genkidesu For sure that would be a good goal for any refugees. I know a couple more recently relocated families from Syria too. Saftey is a bigger reason than traveling visa free in that case.
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on Aug 6
@genkidesu It's a hard pass on renouncing my citizenship in both of the countries where I have the right to live and work. I looked at how to restore them after renouncing to meet Japan's citizenship rules. The UK is more forgiving, with a clear route. Canada requires going through the permanent residency process unless you've got family sponsors.
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on Aug 6
@helloalissa Yes, definitely! I'm sorry if it sounded like I was saying passport power was the primary driver! My Syrian friends absolutely wanted safety and stability first and foremost, but I do think it makes life a lot easier for them now having Japanese citizenship. For instance, the husband of the family has to travel out of Japan quite a bit for work. That's a whole lot easier on a Japanese passport than a Syrian one! :)
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on Aug 16
@genkidesu The index you linked seems to primarily rank passports based on travel freedom, which of course is convenient, especially for work like you mentioned. It's been interesting to read about passport unrelated reasons too, like the COVID travel restrictions, that made you consider naturalization. Also as @Bigfamjapan mentioned, aging is one I hadn't thought of in terms of visa renewals. I have thought about my family having the option to leave, not necessarily because of natural disasters, but it's another fair point. I was actually thinking about the proposed changes to visa requirements and fees. Maybe that alone isn't enough trouble to motivate anyone to just apply for citizenship?
11 Answers