is necessary to research firstly the provisions of the laws of the relevant State, secondly to research the practice of how these laws are operated, and then to clarify whether such persons possess the nationality of the new State and the former State before independence.134 • Eastern European countries (gaining independence from the former Soviet Union) • Georgia (gaining independence from the former Soviet Union) • East Timor (gaining independence from the Republic of Indonesia) • Serbia (gaining independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) • Montenegro (gaining independence from Serbia) • Republic of Kosovo (gaining independence from Serbia) • Republic of South Sudan (gaining independence from Republic of the Sudan) (2) Possible size of Category B With the recent destabilization of international affairs, one cannot deny the possibility that there may be a new collapse of States in the future; in such a case, there will be even more relevant countries and regions included in this category. There are 460 “total number of foreign residents” in Japan with the nationality of the six States starting with Georgia in the list above. In addition, there are 448 foreign residents with the nationalities of Eastern European States that became independent from the former Soviet Union (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Moldova).135 5. Solutions for Category B (1) Prevention In order to prevent statelessness arising from division or collapse of a State, one must be able to either maintain the nationality of the predecessor State or to newly acquire the nationality of the successor State. However, there has not been global agreement with regard to the prevention of statelessness arising from State succession, and it is probably not possible to completely prevent statelessness accompanying State succession.136 134 By July 2016, Japan has recognized as States all the countries listed here which have become independent since around 1990. 135 Total number of foreign national residents in “Statistics on Foreign National Residents” (December 2016), supra note 42. 136 In 2006, the “Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession” was adopted with a provision for prevention of statelessness. It provides that the State concerned shall take all appropriate measures to prevent persons, who at the time of the State succession had the nationality of the predecessor State, from becoming stateless as a result of the 60