Japan court rules ban on dual citizenship constitutional News
ぱちょぴ（pacyopi）, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Japan court rules ban on dual citizenship constitutional

The Fukuoka High Court of Japan upheld the constitutionality of a law that forces Japanese citizens to give up their citizenship if they acquire citizenship in any other country on Thursday.

The case was heard on appeal from the Fukuoka district court, after the petitioner Yuri Konto’s failed challenge against the Japanese Nationality Law. The law stipulates that “a Japanese national shall lose Japanese nationality when he or she acquires a foreign nationality by his or her own choice.” Konto’s central argument is that the law constituted discrimination based on social status, violating the equality clause of the Constitution of Japan (Article 14).

As a crowdfunding platform for public interest litigations in Japan, CALL4 provided legal assistance to Konto in the case. The group further suggested that the law may also violate Article 13 of the Constitution, which protects the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the “arbitrary deprivation of nationality can substantially harm the integrity of one’s identity.” The group contended that there is “barely any state interest worth balancing here.”

Regardless, the court upheld the constitutionality of the Nationality Law. The court did not accept that the law constitutes an “arbitrary deprivation of nationality” because the Nationality Law is clear, which provides overseas citizens an opportunity to choose their nationality in advance.

Yuri also argued that the policy impacts one’s “right to spend time with their families, to take care of them, and to be taken care of,” those who have cross-border families and are thus unable to visit them easily. Non-citizenship also relegates individuals to a secondary status, where they cannot vote and exercise many other civil rights that citizens can. Konto also spoke to the identity-affirming dimension of legal citizenship, and how the termination of one’s citizenship deteriorates one’s relationship with their national identity.

In a discussion with CALL4, Konto stated that “in today’s international society, where so many countries allow multiple nationalities, it is unreasonable to enforce the principle of a single nationality through the domestic laws.”

Konto is a Japanese-born woman who lived in the US for forty years, during which she acquired American citizenship by naturalization in 2004. Kondo travelled between the two countries from 2004 to 2017, when her dual citizenship was discovered. This led to the termination of her Japanese citizenship. Konto permanently moved to Japan in 2020 and brought a challenge against Article 11 of the Nationality Law shortly thereafter.

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