I know it’s legal to walk around without any ID (let alone a passport) if you’re a Japanese citizen, but I’d like people’s experiences with how things have actually went down. Any experiences are welcome, positive or negative.
For non-Asian-looking naturalized Japanese citizens: do you have any stories about how police, or places that use “tourist pricing” (where tourists are charged more; foreign residence typically have to show permit of stay to prove they aren’t a tourist but Japanese people don’t have to show anything), react when they ask for your residence card and you tell them you don’t have one because you’re a Japanese citizen?
- Did the cop/facility just believe you when you said you’re Japanese without having to show any proof?
- For those that have a passport and carry around photos of it in their cellphone: was this photo accepted as proof with no hassle or demand to see the physical passport?
Also, for people who have a My Number card with a katakana name after naturalization (no kanji): Was the fact that your name is written in katakana (instead of the English alphabet, but still not kanji) enough to convince them that you’re a citizen? For foreigners, the name on the My Number card has to match the name on the residence card, and even if a kanji alias is included on the My Number card it has to be shown alongside the official English name. Therefore, having a purely kanji OR katakana name on your My Number card essentially proves Japanese citizenship. I’m curious whether cops/facilities are properly aware of this and how this plays out in practice for naturalized citizens who don’t “look” Japanese and whose names are in katakana.
by Always2Learn