Japanese Passport Renewal for US Citizens

Hi All,

My Japanese husband became a naturalized US citizen about 4 years ago. His Japanese passport is expiring this spring, and his parents who still live in Japan, are urging him to renew his Japanese passport. Their reasoning is that if he doesn't maintain his Japanese passport, it will make things very inconvenient in terms of receiving monetary funds from them in the future, and his inheritance when they pass.

It was our understanding that Japan does not allow dual citizenship, and that when you become a naturalized US citizen, you lose your Japanese citizenship. I do believe that my husband's parents have been paying taxes on his behalf to the Japanese government, even though my husband has not lived in Japan for nearly ten years.

Can you provide some guidance? I've read on other posts that the Japanese embassies have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to naturalized US citizens renewing their Japanese passports. Is this truly the case?

Thanks!

Their reasoning is that if he doesn't maintain his Japanese passport, it will make things very inconvenient in terms of receiving monetary funds from them in the future, and his inheritance when they pass.
What a weird excuse - thinking a travel document would prevent transferring money.

They don't have a "don't ask don't tell" policy.
They do ask and he will be denied a passport.
As you mentioned, he is no longer a Japanese national. The only way he can get a Japanese passport now is by lying and getting it illegally.

If he were a dual national (born that way) then he could have renewed it legally.

If he has been away from Japan for long, I assume he is maintaining gkosekih – family register – but has removed himself from gjuminhyoh – resident record (I hope).

The first will stay there as long as he is alive; this will show the relationship between his parents and himself (unless he removed himself from it by getting his own gkosekih upon marriage; but then he will have his own somewhere in Japan). The second is the one which his resident taxes, pension obligations, etc., will be based on.

Passport is only a travel document, so that would not determine whether he is eligible to inherit or not.

When it comes to dual citizenship, Japanese government encourages (and requires in law) that you renounce your Japanese citizenship upon acquiring that of another country, but never really enforces it (you donft gautomaticallyh lose it as far as I know). But I know that dual citizens between US and Japan for example use their US passport for entering and leaving the US, and their Japanese passport for entering and leaving Japan. So if he lets his Japanese passport expire, he would not be able to do that.

there is no problem of inheritance from his parents, even after he got a US citizenship.
(i.e. there is no problem of inheritance between a Japanese and a US citizen.)
he has already lost Japanese nationality. of course, he can get a new passport by a false application, but his Japanese nationality is invalid. this can be easily evidenced by US government at any moment afterward.

when he registers his children to his koseki after he got a US citizenship, the registration will be accepted. but, again invalid. they will judge that the registration is accepted by illegal application by him. of course, it is a crime.

the important things for him and his parents are that they make the circumstance more clean and clear.