Speaker of Shugi-in (the House of Representatives):
President of Sangi-in (the House of Councilors):
Prime Minster:


Petition

Since March/4/2002
Petition Organization: IST Petitioners Association

Petition Items:

1. Allow Foreigners who reside in Japan to have multiple nationalities.
2. Allow Japanese citizens who reside overseas to have multiple nationalities.
   
3. Allow Children of multiple nationalities to continue to keep the status after coming of age.

Petition Purpose:

Those people who are Japanese citizens living overseas, who are living in Japan as foreigners, and children born with multiple nationalities are facing various problems because the Japanese government does not allow multiple nationalities for adults by principal. We request the recognition of multiple nationalities for such individuals in order to make their life safer and allow them to fully contribute to their community.

The principle of avoiding multiple nationalities claimed in the European Convention on Nationality by Council of Europe, which Japan believes as a rule of the international law, was never completely enforced in Europe and already is obsolete. The Council of Europe entirely reversed this rule in 1997 and adopted the new convention, which is neutral on the issue of desirability of multiple nationalities. Many European countries now recognize multiple
nationalities, and new legislation guarantees the various rights and security of life for immigrants and their international families in hosting countries. The multiple nationality policy is already very common in North America and South America. Many countries in Europe did not prefer to ratify the old Convention on the reduction of cases of multiple nationalities and some have never been able to keep up with it.

In Japan, on the one hand, the concept of nationality is still an obstacle to keeping up with global standards and the pace of international exchanges. On the other hand, more and more people who are directly concerned by the issue are questioning the
"one nationality only" policy, and are have become aware that the nationality law should be revised. Multiple nationalities hold the
key to solve problems that citizens and foreigners alike face because of the legal discrepancy.

In addition, is there any necessity to force foreign residents in Japan to waive their former nationality in order to naturalize? They still have families in their home countries. They may need to go back for personal or family reasons, such as nursing elderly parents. Is it fair to demand that they become foreigners in their home countries? To waive their original nationality implies to waive their lawful ties with their countries. If for various reasons these foreigners with Japanese nationality need to go back to their original countries, it will cause many problems. Because of this reason, many still keep their nationality by birth without obtaining Japanese nationality. The same goes for Japanese citizens who live abroad. Most would naturalize to the hosting countries if they could keep their Japanese nationality.

It is not appropriate either for multi-national children to choose one nationality only when coming of age. It is as if imposing the choice of one parent over the other to children born of mixed marriages. Also, for this reason of choosing a single nationality, many of the voices of the people concerned by these issues do not reach the decision making level of Japanese political institutions controlling the laws.

The State should guarantee basic human rights for all residents of Japan and allow foreign ones to naturalize without renouncing their former nationality, thus making it easier for them to adjust and contribute to their community. The State should also protect the rights and freedom of choice for cultural and national minorities.
Concerns have been voiced about the loyalty of multiple citizens in case of international conflict. Nevertheless, Japan is prevented from its constitution to hold arms against other countries. Therefore, this is not an issue. To the best of our knowledge, it does not seem that the issue had to be addressed by the countries, which recognize multiple nationalities. On the contrary, people who are the citizens of two or more countries are the living symbol that the peace and friendship among those countries to which multiple citizens belong
and encourages the peaceful coexistence between various peoples of different nationalities in and outside of Japan.

We request the Japanese Government of the 21st century to recognize the fact that multiple nationalities have become the norm everywhere. Appropriate measures must be taken to end the unnecessary suffering that the current policy causes. Hence, we request the revocation of article 5 section 1 subsection 5, article 11, 14, 15, and 16 of the Nationality Law.