I (23F) am a dual citizen, and I am having second thoughts about moving to Japan under my Japanese nationality. The job I am working for offered me a later start date if I want to get a US work visa instead of working as a Japanese citizen.
I was planning on renewing my Japanese passport in the US before moving, should I be worried about them asking questions about choosing my nationality? I read online that the dual citizenship ban is not really enforced in Japan. I don’t want to get into any legal trouble.
Will I have to back pay any taxes/social security/pension if I all of a sudden show up in Japan and start working for a Japanese company? Should I save myself all the stress and just get the visa?
Basically, I want to know what nationality makes more sense economically if I’m choosing between US or Japanese citizenship.
Thank you!
by Spiritual-Barnacle56
15 comments
You are legally required to choose citizenship. If you’re going to be living in Japan for the foreseeable future, japanese nationality might be the best.
If you are a Japanese citizen you must enter Japan on your Japanese passport. There’s no choice.
If you’re a Japanese national, you must enter Japan on your Japanese passport. As for deciding what nationality, it’s not really enforced for dual nationals by birth.
If you have Japanese income you have to pay US taxes over a certain amount. Something like $110k but there are lots of deductions.
You have Japanese citizenship. You don’t need a visa and applying for a visa will just get you in trouble most likely. It’s probably illegal for a citizen to apply for a visa.
If you’re a dual citizen from birth, renew your passport and if they give you trouble tell them you choose Japanese citizenship and you’re “making efforts” to get rid of your other one. In Japan no one is gonna care. You won’t make any effort and just move on with life. Forever basically lol
That’s it. It’s that simple.
If the gov’t asks, you’ll have to “choose” a citizenship, but in practice that doesn’t mean they’ll force you to renounce your non-Japanese one if you pick Japanese.
Regardless, insofar as you have both, you cannot get a work visa as a Japanese citizen. You will need to enter and exit the country on that country’s passport.
You are going to have to pay taxes in whichever country you are working in, regardless of your citizenship.
If you are working in Japan, as long as you still have US citizenship, you will have to file tax returns every year in the US. (You probably won’t have to pay anything, but filing every year might be a hassle.)
If you give up your Japanese citizenship and then work in Japan as a US citizen, you’ll need a work visa (that is maybe the reason for the later start date, because it takes to process). That would just be weird. And as other people have posted, you can’t apply for a work visa if you are a Japanese citizen.
So as other people have said, come to Japan and work as a Japanese citizen. Keep the American citizenship for the time being, in case you decide to go back to the US.
you should enter and work in japan as japanese. no need to complicate things.
Does it determine whether you are paid in dollars or yen?
It is illegal in all countries that you are a citizen of to enter with a foreign passport. It is not up to you to choose. I hold 3 different citizenships and I have to use the passport of the country that I am a citizen of to enter. They will find out and they will know. They have your name, facial features, biometrics and your fingerprints. You will be flagged if you use a different passport. Japanese immigration is no joke and they don’t mess around
I work remotely online IT will Japan accept me as permanent residence after 5 years?
Technically Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship. Technically illegal to have both
You’re supposed to enter Japan as a Japanese but you’re not going to get thrown in jail or anything if you enter on your US passport. Many people have done so by mistake and nothing happened to them. They just get their visa cancelled.
I know a guy who’s been living in Japan as a foreigner for 20 years on a spouse visa. He’s a dual national by birth. He’s never had any problems with immigrations.
But yeah, enter as a Japanese.
Important note: Only those *born* with dual citizenship are able to keep it under a “grey area” so if both parents are Japanese and you obtained US citizenship as a child you technically lost your Japanese citizenship the moment you naturalized to the US, and practically you won’t be able to use your passport once they realize it.
As others have said, Japanese citizens must enter Japan with their Japanese passport.
Hi! I’m the same. Dual citizen by birth. You are Japanese, so you have to enter Japan as a Japanese citizen. Trying to get a working visa through your US passport while you have Japanese citizenship is likely illegal and will only cause problems down the road. You shouldn’t have any problems renewing your Japanese passport.
Since you did not have a “jusho” (registered address) in Japan, and you were overseas, you aren’t liable to back pay any health insurance or pension.
Good luck on your future move!