Sreya Kanugula
A Japanese court gave the ruling that the national law of the country that forbids holding multiple nationalities to be constitutional, in their judicial decision making it a first of its kind concerned with this regulation.
A lawsuit filed in the District Court of Tokyo, brought by eight male and female plaintiffs of the age range of 30-60 born in Japan and presently live in Europe, had claimed that the stipulation of the law that Japan’s citizens must give up their citizenship when they gain a foreign nationality violated the country’s Constitution.
But the government made the argument that their claims took no view of national interests since giving permission to multiple citizenships would give people living abroad rights to vote or protection diplomatically in numerous nations.
The suit brought eight plaintiffs to the court, six of whom have gained Swiss and Liechtenstein nationalities, and two of them who are planning to gain Swiss and French nationalities for the facilitation of their professional and personal lives.
According to the filed suit, these plaintiffs had hoped to hold on to their national citizenship as well.
As per Article 11 of the law concerning nationality, citizens of Japan who gain nationality of non-Japanese nature through their own incitement immediately lose their Japanese citizenship, thereby banning the possession of multiple nationalities.
The claim of the plaintiffs was that the regulation was initially created to avoid the overlay of obligations of military service that were imposed by several nations and for other such purposes.
Since several countries around the world currently allow for multiple citizenships, they stated that “The clause forcefully depriving people of (Japanese) nationality violates the Constitution, which guarantees the right to pursue happiness and the equality under the law.”
The law concerning nationality also required citizens of Japan who eventually gain foreign citizenship to give the government notification of their desertion of Japanese nationality.
But since the law included no penalties, several Japanese are still considered to be maintaining multiple passports even after the acquisition of non-Japanese citizenship.
Around 518,000 Japanese people were estimated to be holding the state of permanent residency in several countries since October of 2019 but the confirmation on how many of these people continue to retain multiple citizenships has been unavailable to the government.
