EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Below is a summary of the structure and contents of this report. First, Chapter 1 provides an overview of the legal system and practice related to statelessness in Japan. There is no provision in Japanese domestic law that defines statelessness, and there is no specific procedure for statelessness determinations. However, there is a considerable number of cases where a nationality or statelessness determination is required as a prerequisite for individual procedures under some laws, and it is recognized that nationality and statelessness determinations are conducted in practice. Such examples include the procedures under the Japanese Nationality Act Article 2(iii), which provides Japanese nationality at birth to a child if he or she is born in Japan and both of the parents are unknown or are “without nationality”, and Article 8(iv) which is a special provision for the facilitation of naturalization of persons born in Japan “not having any nationality”. The criteria for such determinations by administrative authorities are not made clear. Chapter 1 further attempts to verify the numbers and realities of stateless persons from various existing statistics; however, it is found that it is difficult to have a comprehensive grasp of the situation under the current circumstances because the definition of statelessness has not been clarified or made uniform among various statistics. Next, Chapter 2 provides an analysis by “category”, which is the highlight of this report. Persons who are stateless or at risk of being stateless are categorized by the place where their nationality issues arose (in or outside Japan), their causes, and the reasons behind them. For each category, summarized versions of typical cases are provided. Also, based on available information, attempts are made to ascertain the number of potentially applicable persons as the “possible size” of each category. “Solutions” are then suggested for each category for prevention, protection, and reduction of statelessness. First, Chapter 2, Section 1 provides an analysis of the following categories of persons whose statelessness or risk of statelessness arose while in Japan.
Category A [Conflict of Laws]: Persons who did not acquire by birth the nationality of their parents or the nationality of their country of birth due to conflict of laws, for 16