Name: About Japanese Citizenship | 帰化について思うこと
Uploaded: 2020-10-30T19:15:51.000Z
Duration: 9 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

And today I'm here to do one of these talky-video bloggy-type things regarding Naturalisation

This video is inspired by a comment on my last video where i was talking about how I

have been in Japan for ten years and a comment asked me if I was considering naturalisation

So before I start I kinda want to remind you to not take my word as “Everybody's Opinion”

because I think that Japanese people and foreigners alike, everyone has different feelings about

this subject so what I am about to say is entirely my opinion and you can take it with

I think a lot of foreigners who first come to japan, come here with the dream that they

are going to work hard and successfully integrate into the culture they have chosen to adopt,

and thats not a bad thing, its just a very very hard thing to do, especially in a country

The reason why we have these ideals in the first place is because we come from countries

For example, I was born in Richmond, British Columbia, and if any of you live in Vancouver

or even in B.C, you will know Richmond is..

Over 50% of the population identifies as Chinese, it's actually the most international city

in all of Canada with over 60% of residents being immigrants.

I grew up in an ethnically diverse country and for me, as a child growing up the only

way I could properly distinguish visitors from actual Canadian residents, was their

accent and the way that they spoke english.

If they had an accent, “oh they must be from outside of Canada”, if they spoke English

just like me, “oh they were probably born here, they're Canadian”

It wasn't really that difficult, you know?

And because of that it's not too crazy to assume that, you know, "if they can blend

in in Canada, why can't I blend in in Japan?"

However, Japan doesn't exactly have the same history with immigrants and internationalisation.

Japan itself was a closed off and isolated country until the mid 1850s, which is really,

in terms of Japanese History, is actually quite recent.

And although an ethnically non-Japanese can apply for citizenship here in Japan, the general

perception of what defines a Japanese person is not what passport you hold, it's all

about your blood and lineage and where you come from, your heritage, pretty much.

This is why Japanese citizens who were born to foreign parents, otherwise known as ha-fu,

or “half Japanese citizens” have a hard time being considered fully Japanese as well,

even if they've lived their whole life in Japan, even if they have a Japanese passport

and are considered a Japanese citizen, even if the only language they know is Japanese,

if they have that foreign lineage they end up being considered in a separate category

And of course not everyone thinks this way, but there is this general consensus that pure

Japanese are like 100% Japanese, and then there's the ha-fu and then there's the

Basically having a Japanese passport, having all the paperwork that says you're Japanese

What makes you Japanese is your heritage, ultimately.

So having said that, I think naturalising or choosing to apply to become a Japanese

citizen is totally a personal choice, and there are people who in spite of all this,

still think that.. you know maybe they have good reason to do so, but for me.. this is

I look Canadian, there's nothing about this could that could even indicate that I could

You look at me and you can tell I was born somewhere else, to parents who were also born

somewhere else, and that is just a fact that I can not change.

No matter how long I live here, what kind of job I do, what credentials I have, or how

much I can speak Japanese, I will always be judged, first and foremost by my appearance,

After ten years you just, ah there's just nothing you can do about it.

It's weird, it does feel strange because, consider it this way:

I don't look at myself every day, like when I'm outside, when I'm going places, when

I'm at the bank, when I'm at the restaurant, or I'm on the train, or I'm going somewhere..

I don't have this consciousness of what I look like to other people.

You know how like dolphins, they communicate with echo-location, they have these sonar

waves and they're like pew and then the things come back and then they're like “oh

I feel like I'm a dolphin in the way where it's like, I go out there and I do things.

I do things and then judging by the reaction that comes back at me,

the things that I say and the things that are said back at me,

that's kind of how I have developed this consciousness of who I am in relation to everyone

My identity as a Canadian has been only made stronger by the way that people react when

The fact is that having a Japanese passport, or doing all the paperwork that “technically”

makes you Japanese, will never change the perception of the people around you, they'll

never be like “oh well now that you're Japanese, I see you differently.”

It's never going to happen, so what's the point?

It's taken me so long to understand this, but

It's normal in CANADA to be multiculturally diverse, that's just you know, that's

just the way that we Westerners were raised.

But are we really entitled to walk into a different country and decide what's normal

Maybe there are people out there who want to naturalise because they think it's going

to prove a point, like “hey, non-Japanese heritage people can become Japanese citizens

But is that really what's best for Japan?

I'm not saying Japan hates foreigners, nono, they love tourists, they love tourists and

they love having people come and enjoy Japan as it is, but they don't need people coming

here and changing Japan, and that's what they're afraid of.

You know, Japan's dedication to preserving traditional ways, that's what makes it a

unique and wonderful country, and that's what makes people come from all over the world

It's not, you know, “oh, well they should make it easier for us to live because we're

different and we came in and this is how we want it.”

we can't, I feel like, we can't just say that.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

About Japanese Citizenship | 帰化について思うこと

assume

perception

accent

basically