[GREG] Can anyone from any country become Japanese?
Yeah! OK.That was an easy video.
Alright. I know. You might be thinking "People can become Japanese,"
"but it's a rare, nearly impossible thing", right?
I'd like you to meet... [EIDO] Eido Inoue.
[GREG] And he... [EIDO] Naturalized, which means I have Japanese nationality.
[GREG] Yes. This man, formerly known as Adrian David Havill,
born in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., became Japanese in 2010.
So, how did this all come about?
[EIDO] I came to Japan straight out of college, and
I didn't really come to the realization that I would... "Let's make it permanent" until I was 40 years old.
It's not like I was on the fence, or just thought about it,
It's just like you think that "Oh! You know, I've been here 20 years."
"It probably means I'm gonna be here for another 20 years."
Nothing against America or whatnot. I just grew too used to being here.
[GREG] Wow! OK. But I heard it's hard to become Japanese.
[EIDO] The more and more I read about it on the English net I realized there is so much misinformation about it
that you really couldn't trust anything that was written in English about naturalization.
You would hear things, anything from it being "Oh, well. It's Illegal. They don't let white people become Japanese",
so to say. I said "Really?"
[GREG] Really? [EIDO] Yeah! So when I looked into it, I said "Well, actually this is not too hard."
[GREG]] Let's face it, Inoue-san, you're a white, well educated American, married to a Japanese woman.
Everyone knows that even Chinese and Koreans born in Japan can't be Japanese.
[EIDO] Actually that's not true. That's kind of an urban myth.
There is a thing called "SPR's" which is an acronym for "Special Permanent Resident",
and if you are an SPR,
the requirements that you, for example, be able to prove that you won't be a welfare recipient, that's dropped.
Basically, the only thing that will keep an SPR from naturalizing is a criminal record
The reason why most SPR's do not have Japanese nationality is because they don't want it.
They could get it through a fast-track process if they wanted to.
[GREG] Tell me straight up: what does it take to be Japanese then?
[EIDO] I think there are 6 requirements.
#1 is 5 continuous years, physically in the country, legally.
They are very big about the "legally" part.
[GREG] I would like to point out that, while Eido knew there were 6 requirements,
he totally missed that the 2nd requirement was to be over 20 years old.
[EIDO] You can't have a criminal record, either in Japan or overseas.
It doesn't say this exactly, but they don't want you to become a welfare recipient.
You don't need to be rich, but you have to show that you have the skills,
and career and ability... even if you don't have your own job. Let's say you're a...
you're the spouse of somebody who does have a career,
or you are within a Japanese family, and they have enough assets to say "You don't have to work for the rest of your life. We're gonna take care of you."
If they're willing to put that on paper, that counts.
Be willing to give up all your other nationalities.
[GREG] Did you really give up your U.S. citizenship?
[EIDO] Where is my "traitor" stamp?
"Bearer expatriated self on September 21, 2011."
I forfeited my U.S. nationality
by, voluntarily, committing an expatriating act, with the intent to lose American citizenship,
and formally reporting it. That's what 349.A.1 means.
And you can't be involved in any type of organization that advocates the
violent or illegal destruction of the modern Japanese constitution.
That "modern" is actually kind of important, because if you're an old-timer that actually fought against
imperial Japan in WWII, that doesn't count.
It's OK if you wanted to destroy that Japan. You can't want to destroy the current, modern Japan, though.
[GREG] So let's say I want to naturalize. What do I need to do?
[EIDO] What you do is you go with this caseworker, and go through a series of interviews, where this guy -or woman-
is in charge of preparing your packet to submit to the Ministry of Justice.
[GREG] Oh, yeah! They love their paperwork, don't they?
[EIDO] I've got chastised once, because "I told you to make 3 copies of this last time."
"Didn't you see? Look. It's written right here. And you only brought 2 copies."
[GREG] I read somewhere they check your fridge for "natto" and other Japanese stuff.
[EIDO] They come to your house. The objective is not to see if like you eat natto every day, and how Japanese are you.
They're trying to say "Oh, well. He says he earns this amount of money, and he spends this amount of money per month, according to paper."
"Let's see... look around the house and see if what he claimed on paper kind of makes sense."
[GREG] Did you need to write a "love letter" to Japan (I mean, a "motivation essay")?
One requirement they have, they say you can not... it has to be your own words in your own handwritting.
Don't have anybody else write it for you.
So I managed to get 5 pages, and I thought to get emotional about "Oh! how much Japan means to me" and all this.
And so I submit the 5 pages for his approval, and he reads it very carefully and slowly.
And after it,
he's done. And I poured my heart and soul out into this 5 pages. And I said "So
what did you think?" He goes "That's acceptable." "What!"
"What! I really worked hard on that and that's all you can give me, a 'That's acceptable'?"
He said "Yeah. Yeah. This is... No. No. This is more than fine. You can trust me."
You don't have to be culturally assimilated, but
It's generally a good idea to know the language, because if you know the language
that's a good predictor of whether or not you'll be able to have success in the country,
in terms of employment, career and not have a nervous breakdown.
[GREG] How did your interview go?
[EIDO] They are very quick and prompt when there is interviews, because they do it all day long.
And you're like you have a 40-minutes slot. And then, right after you,
there is another 40-minutes slot for another candidate, another 40-minutes slot for another candidate, ...
They do the interviews in Japanese, and all this.
I was really worried at first, because I went into the first interview
and I felt like I was interviewing for a job.
I said "Oh! I just gotta be really careful about what I say,"
"and I gotta make sure everything that comes out of my mouth is like grammatically correct",
and I used a beautiful pronunciation in all this. And...
No. The guy was surprisingly reasonable, and he was
working with me, and helping me, and probing me, but...
When I realized the guy that... my caseworker assigned to me
was there to help me, and to get me through the process, rather than to try to discourage me,
then I relaxed a little bit.
[GREG] Did they interview your wife, like the movie "Green Card"?
[EIDO] I thought my wife was gonna blow it for me.
She tends to love black humor.
And they said "Why does your husband want to become Japanese?"
And she's like "Beats me! In this economy, I wouldn't want to become Japanese either!"
"I'd probably want to get rid of my nationality and become non-Japanese."
And, thankfully, my caseworker laughed. He thought that was funny.
[GREG] All right. You're Japanese, but do people accept you as Japanese?
[EIDO] People that have a problem with it, or that are surprised or shocked,
tend to be non-Japanese.
Where as Japanese people actually don't have a problem with it. They are often surprised,
and they try to hide their surprise, because it's probably the first time they ever met a Caucasian naturalized person.
So it's like a new experience, and they try to play it cool with me.
I think for most people in Japan, they can separate the idea of not looking Japanese,
but acting Japanese. And by "acting Japanese" I mean "speaking Japanese as their first language, and have that"
"common set of cultural experiences that come from experiencing the country for a very, very long time."
[GREG] How many people are successful in becoming Japanese?
[EIDO] If the case worker submits the packet,
your chances of approval are in excess of 95%.
[GREG] Wait, wait, wait. You said "IF the caseworker submits the packet." How many packets are never submitted?
[EIDO] Nobody has stats as to how many people give up prior to that submission process,
although legal scriveners that actually help people to prepare the packets along with the caseworkers and all that, say
the dropout rate is around 33%. For Special Permanent Residents, around 25%.
[GREG] Well, hey! Congratulations on becoming Japanese!
One last question, though. What if you wanted to become a citizen of the U.S.A. again?
[EIDO] I'd have to get in line with all the other foreigners, and do it the same way they do.
I'd have to earn it, you know. I'd have to get a visa,
I'd have to get my P.R., and then I'd have to naturalize to American.
Which is ironical, because I have a U.S. birth certificate.
But, yeah. In theory, I could do it. I don't know anybody that's ever done that, though.
If they exist, I would love to meet one, and ask him a lot of questions.
[GREG] Hello, world! Greg here. This was a very brief summary of my hour-long conversation with Eido.
There is a lot of detail and color I left out.
But never fear. I have the whole, mostly uncut, version up on the "X" channel, so check that out.
Also, Eido runs a site, which I'll link to in the description, which has a wealth of information.
As always, I have to thank those who support me on Patreon.
That support allowed me to take the time to really stop and think about how to present this video,
instead of being forced to rush it out.
Thanks for watching! See you next time! Bye!
What's naturalizing like where you're from?