Joely Thompson (Ishikawa)
Yuri Kondo’s Legal Battle
Under Article 11 of the Nationality Act, when a Japanese citizen obtains another nationality, that citizen loses Japanese nationality. Yuri Kondo was born and raised in Japan. She moved to the U.S. in 1971, where she worked as a lawyer, acquiring American citizenship in 2004. For many years, she was able to travel freely between Japan and the United States using her Japanese passport. However, in 2017, she was unable to renew her Japanese passport, having been flagged as a dual citizen. As a result of obtaining American citizenship, her Japanese citizenship had to be forfeited.
Kondo challenged the constitutionality of the law before the Fukuoka District Court, arguing that it violated fundamental rights protected by the Constitution, including Article 14 (equality under the law), Article 22 (freedom to choose and renounce nationality) and Article 10 (authority given to the Diet, i.e. the unconstitutional removal of Japanese nationality without the individual’s consent).
Kondo argues that the policy affects the ability to care for cross-border family members—a problem she knows intimately, as she returned to Japan in 2017 to care for her mother, who had cancer. It removes basic rights associated with citizenship, such as voting, and can impact personal identity, as individuals are viewed and treated as “foreigners” in their country of birth.
Despite these arguments, the Fukuoka High Court dismissed the case, stating that the Nationality Act is constitutional, as it offers individuals the right to choose their nationality. Kondo now plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
The Importance of Kondo’s Legal Battle
In an interview with The Japan Times, Kondo stated: “I want to emphasize that this is personal, but also not personal, because I know that so many people who are in my situation don’t speak up because they are so afraid.” The Fukuoka court estimates that between 900,000 and 1 million people in Japan are potential dual or multinational citizens.
The laws’ lack of clarity and enforcement has created an atmosphere of fear. While the law requires individuals to choose a nationality and stipulates that acquiring a foreign nationality results in the loss of Japanese citizenship, the government has limited means of determining when a citizen naturalizes abroad. As a result, the government relies largely upon citizens self-reporting and forfeiting their Japanese citizenship.
Due to this lack of enforcement, many people live in a precarious legal state, fearing that their dual citizenship may be flagged at airports or during passport renewals, leading to the revocation of their Japanese nationality. For example, Kondo acquired American citizenship in 2004, but it was not until 2017 that she was identified as a dual national and the process of revoking her Japanese citizenship began. For 13 years, she lived and travelled as a dual national within this legal grey area.
Culture of Fear
We interviewed Megumi Nishikura, a Japanese-American filmmaker, who reiterated the culture of fear surrounding the Nationality Act. Nishikura is documenting Kondo’s legal battle in her upcoming film Kokusekihou (Japanese Nationality Act). She explained that, although the Nationality Act contains 20 articles that apply differently depending on the situation, “the harshness of Article 11 creates this atmosphere of fear that overshadows everybody else.”
“So, even people that are born with dual citizenship live in this fear that they are doing something illegal… that the Japanese Government is going to confiscate their Japanese passports.” For those born with dual citizenship, Articles 14 and 16 required them to choose a nationality by the age of 20. If they choose to retain Japanese nationality, they are expected to make efforts to relinquish their foreign citizenship.
Nishikura added, “The fear creates this fog which means people don’t talk to each other. Some people believe the Japanese government can take away your non-Japanese citizenship.”
Ultimately, this atmosphere of fear affects many dual nationals, whether or not they are in the same legal position as Kondo. Between 2013 and 2022, it is estimated that more than 20,000 people renounced or lost their citizenship, many against their will. Kondo’s legal battle, therefore, represents those who feel that having ties to more than one nation is a crime.
However, similar cases have been filed and lost before. Eight plaintiffs from Europe filed a case in 2018, and a Japanese-Canadian citizen filed another in 2022. Both cases argued that Article 11 is unconstitutional. In both cases, the courts upheld the constitutionality of the law.
Who Shapes Japanese Society?
Despite multiple challenges, the Nationality Act remains unchanged. Lawyer Teruo Naka, a member of the Kyoto Bar Association, suggests that these cases raise broader questions about who gets to participate in and shape Japanese society.
This case also unfolds against a shifting cultural and political backdrop. In 2025, Japan saw a record number of foreign workers. At the same time, there has been a rise in right-wing political movements and parties which explicitly express opposition to Japan becoming a so-called immigrant nation. Furthermore, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has promised to improve immigration systems and create a position for harmonious co-existence with foreign nationals.
Nishikura shared that there was always an underlying feeling of not being fully welcome in Japan as a Japanese-American citizen. She suggests that the current political atmosphere in Japan demonstrates that those feelings were always there and that they are finally coming out.
Kondo says that the Nationality Act needs to be revised to keep up with the global trend of internationalization. In many societies, people live their lives across borders. Limiting an individual’s belonging to only one country denies family ties and threatens identity. It should not be the country that decides the way of someone’s work and family, she emphasizes.
76% of countries worldwide allow citizens to acquire multiple nationalities, and 80% of UN member states do not remove primary nationality if their nationals obtain another nationality. Nevertheless, Japan remains firmly committed to the principle of sole nationality.
The Fukuoka District Court in Kondo’s case stated that Japan’s Nationality Act requires individuals to make a “deliberate choice between their Japanese and foreign nationality. Despite the global shift towards more acceptance of dual citizenship, the stipulations of Japan’s Nationality Act remain within the bounds of governmental discretion.”
This ruling reaffirms Japan’s stance on citizenship. However, in a country where 97% of the population is ethnically Japanese, the question of who gets to shape Japanese society remains unanswered.
Author Bio:
Joely Thompson is a first-year JET, teaching English in Ishikawa. She enjoys writing, reading, and exploring Japan.