Even though the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says that 1 in every 30 children born in Japan is hafu, or biracial, coming from two cultures is still seen as a rarity and viewed with amusement. And due to the influx of biracial children, soon enough the Japanese workforce is going to be full of mixed-raced people.
As part of the young biracial population of Japan, I strongly believe that the laws of the country are still not accommodating our growing population.
Under the nationality laws that have been in place since 1985, people with dual citizenship must make a “declaration of choice,” and renounce their citizenship of either Japan or a foreign country, in turn regretfully losing half of our identity.
We are forced to split our own identity into two, and choose one or the other — regrettably hurting family and relatives in the process.
Considering the frighteningly decreasing population of Japan, to force Japanese citizens to either revoke their Japanese citizenship or their foreign citizenship seems illogical. Forcing people to revoke their Japanese citizenship is pushing more and more people out of Japan, lowering the already diminishing population.
We must follow suit with other countries, including world leaders such as the United States, Germany, France, Canada and Australia, on this matter.
The government must start making changes to satisfy the advancing biracial population of Japan, first by allowing us to keep our full identities.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.