Rights of the Child and international standards. 26. Furthermore, guidance published by the Ministry of Justice confirms that the condition of continual three years of residence requires ‘legal residence’.20 The legal residence requirement in this provision is contrary to the Japan’s international obligations meaning that some children born in the country will not be able to acquire Japanese nationality, purely because their parents are without residence status (such as irregular migrants). 27. Additionally, the extent to which this provision is effectively implemented in Japan to reduce statelessness is unclear as there are no publicly available statistics which set out the number of stateless persons granted Japanese nationality under this provision. 28. Japanese law includes a provision, which if applied effectively, could contribute to the prevention of childhood statelessness in Japan with respect to children where ‘both parents are unknown’ (including foundlings) and children born to parents who ‘have no nationality’.21 Article 2(3) of the Nationality Law (Revised Act No.70 of June 13, 2014) (“Nationality Law”) provides that ‘a child shall be a Japanese citizen’ ‘if born in Japan and both of the parents are unknown or are without nationality’. However, there is no definition in Japanese law or guidance publicly available as to the interpretation of the phrase “without nationality”. Additionally, as detailed above, the terms “stateless” or “statelessness” are not defined in Japanese law. Furthermore, this provision does not protect children whose parents cannot confer their nationality on them, for example, because of gender discrimination in the nationality law of the country of the mother. Therefore, the implementation of this provision may not effectively prevent childhood statelessness and ensure every child’s right to acquire a nationality. 29. Additionally, the extent to which this provision is implemented to prevent statelessness is unclear as there are no publicly available statistics as to the number of stateless children who have been granted Japanese nationality under this provision. 20 Ministry of Justice, Question and Answers on Naturalisation, http://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji78.html#a09 [accessed 30 March 2017]. 21 It should be noted that the Ministry of Justice changed its policy in the Ministerial Notice dated October 3, 2007 with respect of the application of article 2(3) to children born to Palestinians based on the following reasoning: ‘recent developments in the area and the virtual State status of the Palestinian National Authority, it is no longer necessary to regard Palestinians as stateless’. Government response No. 280, House of Representatives Interpellation 168 No.280 (December 11, 2007), as quoted in Abe Kohki, Overview of Statelessness: International and Japanese Context, April 2010 http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4c344c252.pdf. 10