Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul11
When I lived in Japan I heard that the following was required: substantial financial reserves and some way to truly contribute to society (i.e. pro sports, science, scholar etc). Is that still the case?
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That`s for the "fast ticket" to citizenship. The route 芸能人 and 力士 take.
In reality, the real requirements are more like 10 consecutive years of residence, or 5 if you`re married to a Japanese citizen... And 3 if you are both married and have children who are Japanese citizens. In my experience, they always *strongly* encourage you to take citizenship at every turn if you can speak Japanese and seem to have the intent to spend the rest of your life here. When requesting information on PR, I was asked "Have you considered citizenship? It would probably be a better choice for you." by immigration.
The real pain is getting the paperwork together, particularly as I don`t really want to make a trip to the US
just to file for some of it.