Law Changes for Foreigners?!

There is a dual nationality discussion going on within the ruling LDP political party. At the moment it is a very tentative trial balloon, and no substantial outcome is in sight. But it is obvious to everyone with a connection to Japan, except the old hard-heads on the right, that there is something very wrong with the psychological and physical health of young Japanese couples, and the country is on a one-way ticket to financial and political irrelevance.Only yesterday in the Nikkei newspaper there was an article stating that there are just two segments of the population enjoying birthrate increases: "half" children (the off-spring of Japanese and foreign parents) and test-tube (IVF) babies. Apparently 5% of all births in Japan are from one of these two categories. And this doesn't take into account the fact that there are possibly as many Japanese citizen-candidate children being born outside Japan. Thus the real number of half kids who will qualify as Japanese (at least until they have to choose a single nationality at the age of 20) could be as many as 8%-10% of all children.This is a dynamic that the government cannot ignore, because SOMEONE has to work and pay for the pensions of the nation's future old people. A quick way to get things moving would be to make dual nationality legal in Japan. Even the U.S. now allows it.

Previous articles dealing with the nationality issue. Arigato to Terry Lloyd for the update.