- I was very intrigued by a lot of the points brought up by Noah Smith’s article on citizenship in Japan. Japan has very different policies in regards to citizenship than does the US, and in my mind it made a lot of sense why the US would adopt birthright citizenship. However, unlike the US, Japan did not depend on waves of immigrants to establish itself as a nation. In thinking about this policy, I couldn’t help but think of a waiter I met while I was in Japan. He was Mexican, and his wife was Japanese. They had recently moved to Japan and had no children. In thinking about Japan’s citizenship policies and how foreigner parents pass on their foreigner status even to their children who are born in Japan, and I am curious about what would be the citizenship status of the children of this couple. Their mother is a Japanese citizen but it seems that their father will always be considered a foreigner. Would the children inherit their father’s status as a foreigner or would they be considered Japanese citizens because their mother is a Japanese citizen?
edited by nramon on 8/3/2016
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