The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018.5 more Australian MPs leave parliament after court's citizenship ruling
SYDNEY©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
29 Comments
Login to comment
Sid
Dual citizenship is not allowed in Japan except for children, who have to choose one nationality when they become adults.
Goodlucktoyou
you have to be a native to rule a country unless you are an invader.
theeastisred
So why did we have the Renho kerfuffle then? Or the LDP member who was also American?
Steven C. Schulz
It's not unclear. So long as you don't acquire citizenship through naturalization, you are a born citizen. A "born citizen" acquires citizenship at birth by being born on U.S. territory, or by "inheriting" it from a parent who is a citizen.
garymalmgren
M3M3M3
Thanks for the clarification.
I have been misinformed.
CH3CHO
theeastisredToday 03:01 pm JST
She did not lose her office as a law maker, you see. The issue was an ethical question rather than legal one if she had lied to the voters about her nationality.
tinawatanabe
In Japan, your Japanese nationality is revoked if other nationality is not renounced. So assuming a public office with two nationalities is technically illegal.
M3M3M3
I strongly support allowing dual citizenship, but I'm still undecided on whether dual nationals should be allowed to serve in parliament. It's a thorny issue that only becomes more sensitive as the world becomes more globalised.
Perhaps some middle ground could be found, such as allowing natural born Australians who gained dual nationality at birth to be allowed, but barring Australians who naturalised in Australia and kept their foreign citizenship, or those who aquired a new citizenship as adults. The problem with this is it creates a 2nd class of citizenship like in America or Spain (ie. natural born citizen and naturalized citizen)
@CH3CHO
There is no penalty explicitly spelled out in the law, but this wouldn't necessarily stop a Japanese court from ruling that your purported choice of Japanese nationality was a deception/fraud and that the only logical consequence is that you are deemed to have chosen the other nationality. Good luck trying to appeal that decision.
The honest truth is that the law on this point is very unclear and has never been fully tested in the courts. Many people insist that it should be interpreted in a way that is most favourable to themselves or their children, but there is a risk that this ends up being wishful thinking.
M3M3M3
But it's not an automatic process in most cases. The reason that Japan can only require foreigners to make an effort to renounce their old citizenship (rather than actually succeed) is because a few countries don't allow renunciation (Morocco and Turkey are/were 2 examples). These people can legally become Japanese while still retaining their old citizenship.
In cases where a newly naturalized citizen makes insufficient effort to give up their old nationality, the authorities could claim that they acquired citizenship by deception and unilaterally revoke it.
The greyest area is children who haven't yet made the choice as adults and actively avoid doing so. In this case there is no deception so it's unclear what could be done (but the courts could always creatively interpret the law).
The least ambiguous case is where a Japanese adult acquires another nationality. They are deemed to have given up their Japanese nationality.
garymalmgren
Half way through this sage in Australia the issue of automatic Israeli citizenship for all Jews was brought and then quashed as "too far".
So, being a Brit by right of your parent's birth is a no no.
But being an Israeli by your religion was deemed (by the politicians, not by the court) to be acceptable.
This issue of Israeli citizenship will now boil to the surface.
It will be a real can of worms.
yamada1043
More than one citizenship should be illegal. One cannot be loyal to more than one master.
M3M3M3
There is actually no automatic Israeli citizenship for Jews in the way some people imagine. Jews do not automatically become Israeli citizens simply by virtue of being born Jewish or converting to Judaism. They merely have a fast track option to become Israeli citizens if they wish. They still need to actively take steps to apply for it and have their claim accepted.
This is quite different from countries where you are automatically regarded as a citizen at birth (whether you like it or not, or even whether the state is aware of your existence) simply based on who your parents or grandparents are.
M3M3M3
@garymalmgren
No worries. I used to think the same thing until just a few years ago. (I had a Jewish neighbour who suddenly decided to pack up and moved to Israel during the EU refugee crisis)
But I think your larger point is still valid. If the issue is loyalty, why shouldn't we also be concerned about citizenships that are incredibly easy to get? Then again, many countries which allow you to renounce your citizenship also have a fast-track process to get it back. In my country I just have to move back for 1 year and I'm a citizen again, and I think Japan is also 1 year. It sort of defeats the purpose of renouncing.
tinawatanabe
wipeout
Some female politicien renouced American nationality when Renho's dual nationality became a scandle. If Japan is a country that allows dual nationality, it wouldn't have happened.
It seems the entire of the Nationality law says so. The principle of the law says Japan does not allow dual nationality.
tinawatanabe
only if you have some political difficulties in renouncing, says the law in effect. "Make efforts" has a significant meaning. It does not mean "You don't have to renounce".
Matt Hartwell
Neither the LNP nor Labor support changes to Section 44 of the constitution which forbides dual nations serving at the federal level.
And I hope it never changes. If people can't see the obvious security implications of allowing dual nationals to serve in your national parliament, then I'd suggest you need your head read.
CH3CHO
tinawatanabeToday 04:04 pm JST
We all know that is incorrect. To keep Japanese nationality, one only has to "choose" Japanese nationality and promise to "make efforts" to lose other nationalities. There is no penalty for not making any efforts. Keeping other nationalities does not lead to loss of Japanese nationality.
Japanese government may revoke Japanese nationality if the double national takes a prominent public office of a foreign government or naturalizes to a third country out of the free will of the double national.
goldorak
Yeah that's a bit weird especially in a country like oz. It's ok for a guy like Matthias Cormann, a born & bred Belgian who moved to oz in his 20s, to get into politics (he renounced his Belgian citizenship when he became an aussie citizen) yet born/bred aussies who unknowingly inherited x or y citizenship from their dad, granddad etc are disqualified from parliament over dual citizenship.
I get that rules are rules but I know i'd be filthy (and embarrassed) if i got disqualified on such a technicality.
Black Sabbath
M3M3
here's a legal standard here, and a political process as well.
The legal requirement that a candidate only have one citizenship allows the voting public to be aware of any candidates citizenship history. So, if some dude is flipping back and forth, that allows the public to decide what is, ultimately, up to them to decide.
In the US, our constitution states " No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;"
I've never really understood this requirement. The age (35 years old) requirement is arguably good - humans tend to calm down a lot after youth is lost -- but, again, isn't that a choice perhaps best left to the People?
arrestpaul
Were these 5 MPs hoping that the 117-year-old Australian constitution would suddenly become null and void after the other MPs lost their positions due to this same dual-citizenship issue?
tinawatanabe
When law is ambiguous, you have to interprete it in a way there won't be any inconsistency.
It says "revoked"
When coming across illegal foreigners, people don't report them to the authority. But it does not mean those illegal foreigners are not illegal.
Kaerimashita
You would think they could pass a law to change this outdated provision.
wtfjapan
Australia is pretty much behind. In Japan, why is that Australia doesnt allow dual citizenship for politicians like Japan, yet it does allow dual citizenship for it citizens, unlike Japan, seems like Japan is the one behind.
Laguna
Unless you're running for Japanese public office - then, it would be a big problem. Australia and Japan are both a bit silly with this. Funny enough, the only US equivalent is the president, who must be a "born American citizen," though exactly what that means remains unclear.
CH3CHO
Australia is pretty much behind. In Japan, if a person has Japanese nationality, his/her other nationalities do not prevent him/her from taking a public office.