"Taking all things into consideration, it is actually very good to immigrate to Japan. If you live here, you will have good food, good environment, good public security, high education level, and it is close to China. You can go back in three or four hours by buying a plane ticket, and your Japanese passport is in Unimpeded access all over the world." A big investor from the Chinese community told me when he came to Japan after nearly ten years. He now also includes overseas immigration for wealthy people in his business scope.
However, this idea is rare among Chinese immigrants overseas. In fact, when more and more Chinese elites immigrate abroad, very few choose Japan as their long-term habitat. Investigating the root cause, the biggest reason is probably that Japan is not a country of immigrants. If you want to immigrate to Japan, you need to break through visible and invisible walls.
About 4,000 Chinese become Japanese citizens every year
The data also shows that compared with the average of about 30,000 Chinese who become American citizens every year according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security statistics, there are much fewer Chinese who become Japanese nationals every year.
The author made rough statistics based on the data released by the Japanese Ministry of Justice. The results show that from 1952 to the end of 2012, the total number of Chinese who became Japanese nationals was 127,326. In the past ten years (2003-2012), the total number of Chinese who became Japanese nationals was 43,835, hovering around 4,000-5,000 each year. The largest number was only 5,392 in 2009.
According to the author’s understanding, more Chinese in Japan tend to obtain “permanent residence” in Japan (that is, permanent residents, similar to American green cards), while fewer prefer to obtain Japanese nationality. As long as we make a simple comparison with Koreans (including Koreans) in Japan, we can see that this tendency of the Chinese in Japan is very clear.
Chinese in Japan and Koreans (including Koreans) in Japan are the first and second largest foreign groups in Japan. As of the end of 2012, the total number were 652,555 and 530,046 respectively. However, in the past ten years (2003-2012), the total number of Koreans (including North Koreans) who became Japanese nationals has reached 82,259, with as many as 11,778 in 2002 alone.
It is not difficult to see that the absolute number and population proportion of Chinese in Japan who have become Japanese nationals are far lower than those of Koreans (including North Koreans) in Japan.
It is difficult to "naturalize", and even harder to obtain "permanent residence"
In the United States, after getting a green card, you need to stay for several years before you can apply for American citizenship. In Japan, it is just the opposite. Japan's immigration policy tends to encourage qualified people to directly Naturalization, rather than “permanent residence”, is much more difficult to obtain “permanent residence” than “naturalization” in Japan.
According to the regulations of the Ministry of Justice of Japan, foreigners’ applications for naturalization are formally divided into “ordinary naturalization” and “special naturalization”. The former is for people who are not married to Japanese people, and the latter is for people who are married to Japanese people and meet the conditions. .
"Ordinary naturalization" requires living in Japan for more than 5 years continuously, being over 20 years old, abiding by Japanese laws, having good conduct, and having the financial ability to maintain the livelihood of oneself and family members; the requirements for "special naturalization" are basically the same, except for the length of residence. The requirement has been reduced to more than 3 years, but it is stipulated that more than 10 types of forms must be submitted, plus more than 5 types of certificates. A friend of the author once complained that when he applied for naturalization, he was even asked to submit a supplementary marriage certificate for his parents.
However, the conditions for applying for “permanent residence” are more stringent. In Japan, a high threshold for applying for "permanent residence" is that the period of residence must be more than 10 years, and the visa in the middle must not be interrupted; moreover, during the period of more than 10 years of residence, one must have at least 5 years of working experience, that is, at least Five years of tax payment certificates. The tax payment certificates actually imply an assessment of "financial ability." If the applicant works for a small company and has limited income, he or she is likely to be rejected. Moreover, you need to hold a visa for more than 3 years when applying, and there must be more than half a year left before the visa expires.
For so-called “senior talents”, Japan only launched the “Overseas Senior Talent Points System” on May 7 last year, in order to attract young and powerful scholars, senior technical talents, entrepreneurs and other high-quality resources. Its characteristic is to set points for evaluation criteria such as academic qualifications, professional qualifications, and income. When the points reach 70, they are recognized as "senior talents" and given preferential treatment. The biggest discount is to lower the requirement for “permanent residence” and reduce the requirement for residence years from 10 years to 5 years. But compared with the 2,000 people the Japanese government hopes to attract every year, only 17 qualified last year.
"Naturalization" is mostly for convenience and promotion
From a rational person's point of view, as the Hong Kong investor said, there are many "benefits" to immigrating to Japan, and "naturalization" is indeed more beneficial than simply obtaining "permanent residence". For convenience and affordability. The author also has some friends who have become Japanese nationals. The biggest reason why they choose naturalization is mostly for convenience.
The first major consideration is the visa-free passport. In the 2012 Henley Visa Restriction Index (Henley Visa Restriction Index), Japan scored 165, ranking 5th among 103 countries; China only scored 41, ranking 5th. 92. This means that there is a huge difference in the international travel freedom between Chinese and Japanese passports. Holding Japanese passport can travel to most countries in the world without a visa.
Many of the friends around me became Japanese citizens for the convenience of traveling. For example, friend A did not initially plan to become a naturalized citizen, but when her company organized overseas trips or paired up with Japanese friends for overseas trips, her Chinese passport became a big problem. Everyone else was exempted from the visa requirement, but she had to apply for a tedious visa over and over again. Finally, she got tired of it and became a Japanese citizen last year.
Friend B became a Japanese citizen, in his own words, “out of anger.” More than ten years ago, he and several Japanese friends applied to visit Hong Kong and were told that they needed to pay money to the Chinese Embassy to apply for an entry permit. The permit was finally granted, but he saw that other Japanese friends did not need to pay or apply for entry. I agree, it’s very psychologically unpleasant. What made him even more angry was that when he was diverted to travel to the mainland, at a train station in a big city, several Japanese friends who were traveling with him took the "foreigners priority" channel, but he had to wait in a long, long queue. team buys tickets. After returning from traveling, he applied for naturalization "in a fit of anger".
The situation of friend C is somewhat similar. Some of his friends returned to China to start businesses after becoming naturalized, thereby enjoying benefits that ordinary Chinese people cannot enjoy. These so-called "preferential policies for foreigners" made him choose to naturalize.
Friend D naturalized for promotion. After D graduated from university, he worked for a large company in Japan. He performed very well at work, but because he was a foreigner, he encountered the " glass ceiling " inherent in Japanese companies. He was not promoted for a long time. His boss who took good care of him persuaded him to He followed this advice when he was naturalized and was promoted soon after naturalization. D said, “After naturalization, there are still barriers and it is difficult to truly integrate, but if you want to be promoted, naturalization is relatively better.”
In addition, there are also Chinese people who consider that naturalization can get lower interest rates to buy houses. And it will be more convenient for future children to receive education in Japan. Generally speaking, Chinese people who plan to develop in Japan for a long time will be more inclined to naturalize, or at least one of the couple will become a naturalized citizen.
Why do you not prefer “naturalization”
Why do you prefer “permanent residence” instead of “naturalization”? The reasons vary from person to person, but they can basically be summarized into two. One is that it is difficult to deal with the “emotional relationship”; the other is that there is no I am sure I plan to develop in Japan for a long time, but I want to eventually return to my country.
It can be said that the difficult "emotional relationship" is an invisible wall for Chinese people when they choose whether to naturalize.
In Japan, the official name for naturalization is "naturalization". This word in Chinese means surrender and surrender. In ancient Chinese, it also means to be influenced by the merits of the monarch and to be willing to be his subjects. Obviously, as China and Japan still have deep rifts, each other is a powder keg of nationalism, and each other is most likely to touch sensitive nerves, such a title will inevitably make the Chinese people feel conflicted.
Secondly, naturalization in Japan often requires "changing your surname" (except for surnames that are commonly used Japanese characters). For example, the national table tennis player He Zhili changed his name to " Xiaoshan Zhili ", the Seoul Olympic table tennis men's doubles champion Wei Qingguang changed his name to "Weiguan Qingguang", the former Chinese women's softball captain Ren Yanli changed his name to "Utsuki Reika", and the famous diving player Su Wei was renamed " Ma Yuan Chongying " and so on. According to the author's understanding, it is still common for Chinese in Japan to be repulsive to changing Japanese surnames. Many people still refer to them by their original names after naturalization, and the names after changing their surnames are only seen in official archives.
In addition, during the interview, some interviewers will ask applicants to express their loyalty and love for Japan , which is also resisted by many Chinese in Japan. This practice is also common in other countries, but given the entanglement between China and Japan, it is still difficult for many people to accept it. I even heard that some Chinese people asked to return the application materials and gave up naturalization in the middle of the interview because of this.
Relaxation of immigration is progressing slowly
Japan's population white paper states that Japan's population will drop from the current 120 million to 90 million by 2050, and the ratio of the working-age population to the dependent population will change from the current 7:3 to 1:1. . Faced with such a severe demographic situation, many people predict that Japan will continue to liberalize its immigration policy.
Former director of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau and director of the Immigration Policy Research Institute, Hidetoku Sakazaka, once said, "The declining population is the biggest problem, and the country will have to struggle for its survival. In any case, the United States is trying to make Keep yourself alive, Because it attracts an influx of talents from all over the world. On the contrary, Japan is good at everything but does not accept people from overseas.”
He proposed that Japan need to accept 10 million foreign immigrants, but it was voted down and was rejected by right-wing and conservative forces. Denounced it as "traitorous behavior." A previous survey of 2,400 Japanese voters by " Asahi Shimbun " also showed that 65% of the respondents opposed the entry of more immigrants.
Therefore, even if Japan continues to relax its immigration policy, this process will probably be extremely slow.
