JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES 983 their abandonment. Whereas nationality law defines abandoned children as children without any trace of parents, the real condition of abandonment includes decades of uncertainty about whether the children have been abandoned. Migrant parent(s) abandon their children gradually, showing hesitation, regret, and attachment. This unintentionally results in pushing the children into citizenship limbo. Because local men do not face the same child care responsibilities and stigmatisation that migrant women face, as mentioned earlier in this paper, the parent who is most able to secure the child’s nationality is the least likely to do so. The above vignettes show how citizenship regimes sometimes reinforce the notion that ‘mobility can weaken the leverage of the already weak’ (Massey 1994, 150). The complicated application of nationality law delegitimises people, and it is difficult for marginalised and stateless people to interpret the ‘language of legality’ (Levin 2018, 31) and understand how time affects the legal production of statelessness. Notes 1. Item 3, Article 2 (‘Acquisition of nationality by birth’) of the Nationality Law of Japan, http:// www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html. Accessed 12 March 2020. 2. See appendix I, an excerpt from Article 2 (‘Acquisition of nationality by birth’) of the Nationality Law of Japan. 3. The term ‘impossible children’, in this article, refers to what Allerton discusses in her paper (Allerton 2018); children of migrants with a particular experience of illegality and exclusion distinctively configurated for such children (Allerton 2018, 1082). 4. Each vignette is composed of two to three cases from 24 cases of children whose parent(s) are assumed to be Southeast Asia and East Asian migrants and who appeared in interviews. 5. Interview with wives of ex-bandmen who stayed in Japan in the early 1970s in Manila (21–27 August 2008); Ministry of Justice, Japan. 1968. Table 3 ‘Visa category of legitimate foreigner by nationality (Kokuseki betsu seiki nyukoku gaikokujin no zairyu shikaku)’ Immigration Statistics, Annual Report (Shutsunyukoku kanri tokei nenpo Showa 43 nen) pp. 18-19; Ministry of Justice, Japan. 1968. Table 8 ‘Age and Gender of legitimate foreigner by nationality (Kokuseki betsu seiki nyukoku gaikokujin no nenrei oyobi danjyo)’ Immigration Statistics, Annual Report (Shutsunyukoku kanri tokei nenpo Showa 43 nen) pp. 60-61. 6. Ministry of Justice, Statistics on the Foreigners Registered in Japan [(Zairyu Gaikokujin Toukei) http://www.moj.go.jp/housei/toukei/toukei_ichiran_touroku. Accessed 16 April 2020. 7. The list of orphanages is available at http://www.zenyokyo.gr.jp/list/list.htm (last accessed: 26 February 2020). 8. The Immigration Service Agency of Japan provides a residence card for foreign nationals aged 16 years or over residing in Japan as mid- to long-term residents (interpreted by the author as referring to residents who stay for more than 90 days). The residence card contains a photograph of the resident and records the resident’s name, birth date, gender, nationality/ region of origin, address, status of residence, period of stay, and whether or not they can work (Immigration Service Agency of Japan 2019). Acknowledgements The author offers her sincere thanks to all the respondents—orphanage staff members and directors who dedicate themselves to the children. This paper is the outcome of a research project supported by the Asahi Glass Foundation, The Murata Science Foundation, Rikkyo University, the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under grant number