On name choosing, and personal identity

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Hi, my name is ロドリゲス オスカル {RODORIGESU Osukaru}, a Colombian-born, Japanese national.

As you can probably infer from my name, I have no Japanese, or any kind of Asian ancestry. Prior to arriving in Japan on 2008, I had no particular connections to Japan, yet here I am, as a naturalized Japanese national.

I left Colombia on some pretty good terms. Without being particularly wealthy, I was a 20-something professional working in IT in Colombia when I decided to come to Japan as a graduate student. I still am in very good terms with my family and friends back there, and I visit about once every two years-ish as budget allows.

(ｲﾒｰｼﾞ {imēji}: not actually the author of this post)

Unlike many people who naturalize, I didn't have permanent residence when I applied; I had been on a renewable 技術 {gijutsu} or "Engineer" status of residence, working for a Japanese company, earning around average, or maybe a bit below average for my age group.

And to top it off, I was not married when I applied, or when I got naturalized. I am married now to a Japanese-born Japanese national, and indeed, as we started discussing marriage with my now wife, I wanted to finish my naturalization process before marrying, for many reasons, one of which is to prove that it is indeed possible to naturalize being single.

So, how come a person with under a decade of living in Japan, no prior connections to the country, no family in the country, no permanent residence, and not particularly wealthy, ends up as a naturalized Japanese national?

If you have been reading this site often, you will understand that there is no particular part of my story which would disqualify me for naturalization:

• 20 years old or older? Check.

• 

  (ｲﾒｰｼﾞ {imēji}: not actually the author's school)

  5 years legal residence? Check. Time with a 留学 {ryūgaku} or "Student" status of residence does count, even though some incorrectly claim it doesn't.
• Good conduct? Check.
• Able to make a living? Check, although not precisely a luxurious one.
• Willing to give up previous nationality? Check.
• Not planned to destroy the constitution of Japan? Check.
• Willing to choose a name in a combination of hiragana, katakana and/or kanji? Read on, but ultimately, Check.

I'm not sure if there are lots of people with backgrounds similar to mine, that apply to naturalization, but let me assure you it is perfectly possible.

I started my naturalization process in November 2014, formally applied on March 2015, and was naturalized on July 2016. That is 16 months from the official application, which based on what I've read on this site, may be a bit longer than usual, but in my opinion not unreasonable at all.

Some time around June 2016, I got a call from my case worker, who told me my naturalization was all but accepted. The last step would be to renounce my Colombian citizenship, and after I prove I had renounced, they would formally naturalize me.

It turns out you can, and you have to renounce Colombian citizenship before you receive your Japanese citizenship. This is what you have to do:

(ｲﾒｰｼﾞ {imēji}: Embassy in Paris, not Tokyo)

• Make a written formal request to renounce your citizenship. The entire thing has to be in your handwriting, and you write it in the Colombian consulate in front of a consular staff member.
• 5 recent photographs. (I wonder why so many)
• Turn in your national ID and passport if you have it
• Prove that you have another nationality, or that you're applying for it. My case worker gave me a 指示書 {shijisho}, which is a letter explaining that I was all ready to be naturalized.
• Proof of good conduct. You get this at the Japanese police main office in 霞が関 {Kasumigaseki}, and it takes about a week. Then you get an apostille, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA; 外務省 {gaimushō}), also in 霞が関 {Kasumigaseki}. You cannot open the envelope or it becomes invalid, so I have no idea what it said. None of this costs any money.
• (not mentioned in the linked site) For males, proof that you have your Colombian military situation "defined", probably to prove that you're not trying to escape military service (or a lawful alternative to it). A valid military card is sufficient.
• Pay $80 US dollars (at a hideous exchange rate set by the consulate).

And that's it! You get an appointment at the consulate, do what they tell you, and you walk out without your previous ID, passport, and a document saying you're no longer Colombian, effective immediately. You then bring this document and its translation to the case worker, along with a copy of the "written formal request" you turned in to the consulate, and two weeks later I saw my name in the list of naturalized people in the official gazette.

An interesting part of this process is that I was officially stateless for about two weeks, and my 戸籍 {koseki} or family registry, says that before naturalizing, I was stateless. Because of this, I never had to fill in a 国籍選択 {kokuseki sentaku} or Choice of Nationality, that many other people who contribute to this site are familiar with.

Some mildly interesting trivia about my naturalization process:

• I did have a house visit the same day of my official application. The case worker told me they would visit later in the day, so please stay at home. The visit itself lasted about 3 minutes, and by the time I offered a seat, my case worker was already on their way out.
• The house visit was most likely meant to ensure that somebody did indeed live at that place. My case worker asked me to open two closets: a normal clothes closet and the shoes closet. I did not particularly clean the place, but I at least ensured there were no dishes in the sink.
• At around the 9-month mark of my application, I got a call from my case worker, asking me to explain a minor issue in 2010, where I had mistakenly applied for an incorrect status of residence, and was quickly corrected back then. I had almost completely forgotten about that very minor issue, but I guess that proves they do check every single detail of your case with a very fine comb.
• As many other contributors to this site have said, being able to communicate in Japanese during the process was enough to waive the requirement of having a Japanese language test.

So, why did I naturalize? To me, nationality is a very circumstantial issue. I find it regrettable how people have more or less opportunities in life, just because of the country where they happened to have been born in.

Regardless of why I came to Japan, this is now my home. This is where I am making my life, and this is where I picture myself making the rest of my life. I will be here, and I will stay here in all good and bad times, so naturalizing is a way to ensure that my adopted country is also willing to do the same by binding this very solemn social contract that will last for the rest of my life.

Wouldn't have permanent residence sufficed? This is a question I get a lot, and a question my case worker made when I was applying. And the answer is no. As it has been seen on recent events in the United States, there is a huge difference between having the right to live and work in a country, and simply having permission to do so. But more than the technicalities of having one or another passport, I view nationality as an agreement of mutual benefit between a country and an individual, where both parties have rights and duties; not much unlike marriage.

Hungry? Some lovely アレパ {arepa} recipes;
or select the photo for a nice Colombian restaurant

Some may choose to believe I am now less of a Colombian because I renounced my previous nationality, and may even argue that I will never fully become Japanese because I have no Yamato genes in my veins. To them I say I don't care much. I believe an individual is defined by what they do, more than what they are. As a Colombian I was never interested at all in football or dancing, but I have taught my wife to enjoy some good Colombian style arepas, and you can bet I will teach any potential offspring Spanish and parts of Colombian culture.

On the other hand, as a Japanese, I don't think I will ever be interested in eating natto, or doing unpaid overtime for my employer, but you can bet I will continue enjoying my local festivals, and most likely, the main language of my household will always be Japanese.

All of this brings us to our main story today: my name. Some may call me insane, but I believe your name is a very important part of your essence as an individual. Many naming conventions, including Colombian and Japanese, include something about your past (your family name), and something unique about yourself (your given name). Choosing my Japanese name was possibly the most difficult part of my application process.

This would have been a great chance to finally become Mr. Tanaka, or whatever other Japanese name I wanted. With my previous family name being Rodríguez, I could have even chosen a chinpira-style (チンピラ {chimpira}：thug / hoodlum / gangsta) looking last name like 露鳥下司 {RODORIGESU}, but the fact that I trace my roots to Colombia, and that all my family shared the same family name, was more than compelling to keep my family name as it was. In other words, I didn't feel I had the moral right to change my family name to something different.

When I married, my wife chose to take my name, and certainly, people now address her as ロドリゲスさん {RODORIGESU-san} as well.

For my given name things were more complicated. It turns out that for all matters in Japanese, I have always used the Japanese name 勇治 {Yūji}, not unlike many Asian people who move to western countries and choose to adopt a western name to simplify conversations and many other daily life matters. In fact, my wife calls me ゆうちゃん {Yū-chan}, which comes from 勇治 {Yūji}.

After thinking a lot about it, I decided to make my official naturalization application as ロドリゲス 勇治 {RODORIGESU Yūji}. That would include a part of my past in my family name, and a part of my new present and future in my given name.

But then I chickened out. I didn't feel comfortable about that choice of name, and after a few weeks after applying, I sent in a request to change my desired name in my application to オスカル {Osukaru}, which is a transliteration of my previous name of Oscar.

The reality is that, regardless of how I live my life here in Japan, I am different from Colombians who never change their nationality, and I am also different from Japanese who were not naturalized. That is more transcendent than any particular name I choose for my daily life, and choosing 勇治 {Yūji} as my new legal name would be denying that fact. My parents named me Oscar, and I am extremely happy and proud of that name, and whatever name I chose for whatever reason, is irrelevant to the fact that to my parents, I will always be Oscar. So I transliterated it, and now my official given name is オスカル {Osukaru}.

So that's the condensed version of the reason behind my quite simple Japanese name. If you naturalized, how did you choose your name? And if want to naturalize, what name will you choose?

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