1. Amount of Required Documentation Is Enormous
Application for naturalization requires an exceptionally large number of documents.
Generally in average, even salary earners (employees of a company) whose taxes and social insurance premiums are handled by their employers are required to gather approximately 25 to 35 different types of documents from both their home country and Japan, and to write 8 to 12 documents by themselves. Sole proprietors and company owners may need to gather 40 to 50 types of documents and to write 10 to 15 documents by themselves.
While the Legal Affairs Bureau publishes lists of required documents, many of these documents are unfamiliar to the most of applicants. For example, when asked to submit a “certificate of payment of public pension insurance premiums,” most people have no idea where or how to obtain it.
The first step our office takes is to create a personalized checklist of required documents, tailored to each applicant’s individual circumstances with clear, easy-to-understand explanations. We then closely monitor the document collection process by the applicant and make sure that he/she does not mistakenly obtain wrong documents with similar names, regularly check the progress of gathering, and provide advices on the content and wording of the documents that the applicant must write by oneself.
2. The Applicant Plays a Main Role, We Are an Assistant
To become naturalized in Japan (to obtain a Japanese Nationality) means that the country which was once your own becomes a foreign country. You will no longer be able to reside indefinitely in your country of birth. You will not be able to work there without a work permit. You may be even required a visa simply to visit your parents.
Since an applicant must have strong motives to obtain Japanese nationality even at the cost of such sacrifices, he/she must be able to explain persuasively the one’s motives to the officer in charge at the Legal Affairs Bureau.
In the case of the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau, a certified administrative procedures legal specialist (gyosei-shoshi) can make the application appointment on behalf of the applicant and also accompany the applicant on the day of submission (the first interview). However, the role of the accompanying gyosei-shoshi is rather limited. During the interview, the gyosei-shoshi is only there to hand over documents in the proper order and says very little.
On the scheduled date, the applicant and the gyosei-shoshi go to the office of the Legal Affairs Bureau and are led into a small private room. There they meet face-to-face with the officer in charge. The officer reviews each document brought by the gyosei-shoshi one by one and asks brief questions while checking their contents. These questions are always directed to the applicant, not to the gyosei-shoshi.
Unless the applicant is unable to understand the questions in Japanese, he/she is expected to answer them in one’s own words, without relying on the accompanying gyosei-shoshi for assistance.
Applicants must fully recognize that this application may change the course of their lives, and they are expected to take an active, responsible role themselves rather than leaving everything to the gyosei-shoshi.
3. Gyosei-Shoshi as a Companion Throughout the Long Preparation Period
In Tokyo, the date to submit the application (the date of the first interview) will be usually several months after making a reservation. The waiting period of those months becomes the time for preparing the necessary documents. As mentioned above, during this period the certified administrative procedures legal specialist (gyosei-shoshi) assists with gathering documents and preparing the required statements, and on the day of appointment accompanies the applicants as their assistant. In any case however, the most important role of the gyosei-shoshi is to serve as a trusted companion throughout the long preparation period leading up to the application.
As preparation progresses, applicants inevitably begin to feel various anxieties and doubts. They may be unable to obtain certain required documents, have issues in their past history, struggle to complete their resume because their memory does not match the records, worry that the company they run or work for is not performing well, or feel that the draft of their statement of motives is not sufficiently persuasive, and so on.
Our office stands by applicants throughout these stressful months leading up to the submission (the first interview), offering continuous support and serving as a trusted advisor in addressing these concerns and issues.