Introduction Nationality is generally defined as “the individual’s status as a member of a particular state” and indicates “a legal bond of affiliation with that state”3. Stateless persons lack this nationality. The present international system in which the sovereign state serves as the basic unit has been designed on the presumption that individuals are affiliated with a certain state. Citizens benefit from various services offered by the state, which in turn stabilizes its foundation by providing them with necessary protection. The emergence of persons without protection from any state undermines the efficacy and legitimacy of this system, and has been dealt with as a “problem” needing to be “solved.” Stateless persons and refugees exemplify this problem4. 3 Tadamasa Kuroki and Kiyoshi Hosokawa, Gaijiho, kokusekiho, Gyosei (Alien Law and Nationality Act) (1988), p.237; Hidehumi Egawa, Ryouichi Yamada and Yoshiro Hayakawa, Kokusekiho (Nationality Act) (1997), p.3; Shoichi Kidana, Kokusekiho (Nationality Act) (2003), p.6. The International Court of Justice defines nationality as a legal bond in the Nottebohm Case (1995). ICJ Reports 4, p.23. However, Yasuhiro Okuda argues that the description of nationality as “a status of a membership of a particular state” has a more universal validity. Okuda, Kosekiho to kokusai oyakoho (Nationality Act and International Law on Parents and Children) (2004), p.33. The terms “nationality” and “citizenship” are often used synonymously. Batchelor, C., “Statelessness and the Problem of Resolving Nationality Status,” International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol.10 (1998) p.159, n.5. The United States has a category of “noncitizen national” which describes a new status of people who live without full range of citizenship. See Kerber, L., “The Stateless as the Citizen’s Other: A View form the United States,” The American Historical Review, Vol.112 (2007) p.47. The subject of this paper will be limited to the nationality of natural persons, and will not refer to that of legal persons or corporate entities. 4 A trailblazing research published by the U.N. in 1949 describes stateless persons as “an anomaly”, which creates a state of affairs “incompatible with a healthy conception of the law”. (A Study of Statelessness, E/1112; E/1112/Add.1 August 1949, paras 1.3. See also Weis, P., “The United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,” International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol.11, (1963) p.1073). UNHCR has recently described stateless persons as “outcasts from the global political system of States” or “non-persons /legal ghosts.” (UNHCR, The problem of statelessness has become a live issue again, 1 March 1996; The World’s Stateless People: Questions and Answers (2006), p.5.). In theory, statelessness would not exist without states, as is the case for refugees, so one may say that stateless persons are a structural product of the present international system (Kenjiro Yamaoka, Kokuminto nanminno deautokoro (Where Nationals and Refugees Meet) Hitotsubashi shakaikagaku (Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Science) No.3 2007, pp.231-55. See also, Haddad, E., The Refugee in International Society (2008), pp. 46-69. Furthermore, the stateless “serve the state by embodying its absence, by providing frightening models of the vulnerability of those who lack sufficient awe of the state” (Kerber, supra note 3, p.74). Chen Tien-shi’s remarks also relate to how stateless persons expose the system of states and nationality: “When thinking about stateless persons, they lead an existence deprived of what any citizen would regard as a given. They sigh and seem apathetic about their plight. Many years later, I found even if they try to scoff the inconsistencies of the state as meaningless entities, they are most affected by the lack of protection a state can provide. They are at the mercy of the authorities and live in constant fear. Many stateless persons hold a strong sense of nationalism and have a special attachment to a certain country. Chen, Mukokuseki” (Statelessness) (2005), p.143. （ 7