to identify the number of cases where Article 2(iii) has been applied among all the
notifications of birth, which amount to 1 million a year.
4. Solutions for Category G
(1) Prevention
As stated earlier, a child is to acquire Japanese nationality by birth under Article 2(iii)
of the Japanese Nationality Act if he or she is born in Japan and his or her parents are
unknown or stateless.
However, the guidance provided in the Supreme Court’s Baby Andrew case or the
Yokohama Family Court adjudication is not systematically implemented in practice. There
have been continuous reports of cases where infants have been registered as “foreigners”
based on inaccurate information (of the parents). The causes for this may include the fact
that officials in charge in the relevant administrative bodies do not have sufficient
knowledge about statelessness, and the stateless persons themselves are not aware of
the fact that they (or their parents) are stateless. As a result, unfairness arises where only
persons who have the means to receive adequate assistance from experts and to resort
to litigation in courts of law manage to find remedies.
It is necessary to systematically dissiminate the standards contained in the Supreme
Court ruling on the Baby Andrew case in relation to the interpretation of the phrase “both
of the parents are unknown” under Article 2(iii) of the Nationality Act, and to ensure that
practice is in line with these standards.
That being said, the criteria have not been fully established as to what kind of
circumstances relating to the father and mother need to be established in order for the
person to qualify under the phrase “both of the parents… are without nationality” in
Article 2(iii).
Thus, attention is called for so that the scope of “statelessness” is not narrowly
interpreted in an arbitrary manner in each administrative procedure. If the above is
implemented systematically, this category of statelessness should be prevented to a
significant extent.
(2) Protection and reduction
As stated in (1), with regard to this category, there is an established legal provision, i.e.,
Article 2(iii) of the Nationality Act. If this is adequately implemented, this category of
statelessness will be resolved to a significant extent.
However, it is expected that there may be cases that fall outside the application of
Article 2(iii) even if the provision is properly implemented. For example, in cases in which
information about the father or mother’s identity is sufficiently available but they are both
missing, the child cannot go through the procedure to acquire (confirm) nationality of the
parent(s) with the relevant country.
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