Naomi Osaka is the toast of Japan after winning the Australian Open last weekend and becoming the first Japanese player to be ranked No. 1 in the world. However, she faces an awkward deadline.
Japan’s Nationality Law requires Japanese who have additional citizenships to choose one when they turn 22. Osaka, who holds both US and Japanese passports, reaches that age later this year.
Though Japan has rarely enforced the rule, Osaka’s celebrity status poses a challenge to a nation historically obsessed with national and ethnic identity. She most likely will not be able to dodge the decision.
Her dilemma is hardly unique in Asia. While many other parts of the world have been opening up to the benefits of dual-nationality, Asia’s wealthiest and most populous economies — including Singapore and China — have stubbornly resisted doing the same.
It might be time to rethink that opposition. Nations that welcome dual citizens are magnets for globalized talent and capital — two things Asia’s aging societies are increasingly going to need if they want to remain vibrant and growing.
Historically, citizenship was viewed as a kind of exclusive relationship, permanently committing the individual to the nation. In cases of international marriage and children, citizenship was typically assigned on the basis of the husband’s and father’s citizenship.
This could have ugly consequences: As recently as the 20th century, American women who married Chinese, Philippine or Japanese nationals automatically forfeited their US citizenship in favor of their husband’s. As of 1960, more than half of the world’s nations stripped nationality from anyone who voluntarily adopted the citizenship of another nation.
This conception of citizenship began to erode after World War II. As cross-border marriages became more common, many nations chose to accept multiple citizenships without legal consequence.
Today, three-quarters of the world’s nations allow their citizens to acquire a second citizenship without automatic repercussions.
In some cases, particularly nations with large diaspora populations, the process is even encouraged.
In December last year, Lesotho amended its constitution to allow for dual citizenship, hoping to reverse decades of brain drain and lure home native-born nationals who lost citizenship when they acquired overseas passports.
Similarly, in 2016, Mexico — which for decades opposed dual citizenship — began actively encouraging Mexicans who legally reside in the US to acquire US citizenship. The goals are several, including a desire to see Mexican-Americans more active in US civic life, ensure that their legal interests are protected in the US (especially in the current anti-immigrant climate) and facilitate US investment in Mexico.
These are more than just hopes. Academic studies suggest that nations that recognize dual nationalities enjoy greater rates of return migration and overseas remittances than those that do not.
Equally important, at least one study demonstrated that citizens who are forced to choose often renounce their original nationality, particularly if, as in the case of China, citizenship rights might be viewed as insufficient compared with other nations.
Meanwhile, another study suggested that selective programs (recognizing dual citizens from certain nations only) can be an effective means of attracting targeted talent and demographics.
It is no surprise then that several Asian governments have changed longstanding policies on dual citizenship in hopes of accruing these benefits, including South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines.
However, elsewhere in the region progress has stalled for a range of reasons, including security concerns (India and China), fragile senses of national identity (Singapore and Malaysia), and concerns about ethnic purity (Japan).
Several of these nations, including India and China, have been afflicted by damaging brain drains: Allowing dual citizenship might attract at least some expatriates to come home to work.
For more developed economies such as Japan and Singapore, dual citizenship can serve as an added incentive as companies compete for an increasingly globalized talent pool. It might also provide a small, but not insignificant bulwark against aging and shrinking populations.
The Japanese Ministry of Justice estimates that there are about 890,000 Japanese dual nationals, including individuals assumed to have multiple nationalities based on birth to non-Japanese parents. Osaka, the nation’s current darling, is one of them.
Rather than force her to choose her identity or — worse — remain in the legal shadows, maybe it is time for Japan and other Asian nations to recognize her and her compatriots as representatives of the region’s globalized future.
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
RSS