DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS an insider alongside one’s family in relation to those outside the family, and outsider in relation to other families. These relationships are reflected in the language itself when different words or ways of speaking are used depending on who is being spoken to (to an elder with respect, to a junior with guidance and benevolence), and who is being spoken about (about oneself or one’s family with humility, about another’s family with honor). Respect for elders is given particular importance in Japanese society and is an important principle to highlight in this context due to the fact that most of the persons of Japanese descent at risk of statelessness in the Philippines are elderly. Chapman describes how Japan from the 1890s was, “often referred to as the family nation (kazoku kokka), …[and] increasingly symbolised the emperor as father of the nation-state in which the imperial family and the Japanese people were indelibly linked through blood.”199 The consequences of the war are also particular moving in Japan, and this is important because 2020 marks the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The timing is important as this issue is likely to garner a lot of attention in 2020 and beyond, and there may be opportunities to move the issue forward. C.5. Japan: Norms, National Policy, Legal Framework, and Implementation Until 1899 Japan did not have a Nationality Law. Under Article 1 of the 1899 Nationality Law, a child is a Japanese citizen if the father is a citizen of Japan at the time of the birth. It was not until 1984, when Article 2 of the 1950 Nationality Law was amended to remove the gendered aspect of that provision so that a child is a Japanese citizen if the father or mother is a citizen at the time of the birth. Citizenship in Japan is, therefore, based on the principle of jus sanguinis (by blood 血統主義). However, Japanese Nationality Law includes elements of jus soli (by birth place 出生地主義), for example, when both parents are unknown or are stateless. Finally, it has been suggested by at least one scholar that citizenship in Japan is actually conferred by “registration” in the family register (koseki) (a principle that could be called “jus koseki” (戸籍主義)).200 Whether or not we go this far, the importance of the koseki in Japan cannot be overstated. This section provides an analysis of the koseki, nationality, immigration to Japan, and statelessness under Japan law. David Chapman, Geographies of Self and Other: Mapping Japan through the Koseki (自己と他者の配置−−戸籍を通して日本を 見る), The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 9, Issue 29, Number 2, 19 July 2011. 199 Although it has also been suggested that in Japan it is actually “registration” that confers citizenship. See Karl Jakob Krogness, Jus Koseki: Household registration and Japanese citizenship 戸籍主義 戸籍と日本国籍, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Volume 12, Issue 35, Number 1, 29 August 2014, available at: https://apjjf.org/2014/12/35/Karl-Jakob-Krogness/4171/article.html. 200 66 UNHCR / April 2021