child status,180 (ii) confirmation of the non-existence of a parent-child relationship,181 and (iii) a petition for recognition of parentage.182 Among the cases where the petitions (i), (ii), or (iii) are approved, the cases where statelessness can arise are limited to scenarios in which, e.g., the mother is stateless or the mother’s country of nationality adopts a strict jus soli principle. However, it is extremely difficult to speculate about the ratio of such cases among all the cases above. Next, an attempt is made to identify the possible number of cases where this category of statelessness arises by looking at the number of deletions among family registers, an action which necessarily follows the retroactive loss of Japanese nationality. Within the statistics relating to family registers, approximately 700-900 cases have been reported every year in recent years related to Family Register Act Article 103 (notification of loss of nationality) and Article 105 (reports of nationality loss when it comes to the attention of a public office).183 It is unknown how many among the above cases are those for whom the loss of Japanese nationality is highly likely to result in statelessness (such as when the mother is 180 Civil Code, Article 772: “A child conceived by a wife during marriage shall be presumed to be a child of her husband. A child born after 200 days from the formation of marriage or within 300 days of the day of the dissolution or rescission of marriage shall be presumed to have been conceived during marriage.” “A child born during marriage or within 300 days of divorce is presumed to have been conceived during marriage (a child born in wedlock); therefore, even if the father of the child is another man, upon submission of the birth report, the child is registered in the family register as a child of the mother and her husband. In order to deny this presumption that the child is fathered by the husband, the husband must make a claim to the family court for mediation for denial of birth in wedlock, which denies the fact that the child is his own.” “In this mediation, when both parties agree that the child is not a child of the husband, and when such agreement is deemed just by the family court having conducted the necessary research on the facts, then the court will make an adjudication in accordance with the agreement.” Court website, “Chakushutsu Hinin Choutei [Mediation for Denial of Birth in Wedlock]”, at http://www.courts.go.jp/saiban/syurui_kazi/kazi_07_15/. 181 “Even in case a child is born during marriage or within 300 days of divorce, if it is objectively clear that the wife has no possibility of becoming pregnant with a child of her husband, for example when the husband did not have any sexual relationship with the mother of the child due to long-term absence on an overseas mission, imprisonment, separation, etc.; in such cases, it is possible to make a claim to the family court for mediation to confirm the non-existence of parent-child relationship.” Court website, “Oyako Kankei Fusonzai Kakunin Choutei [Mediation to Confirm Non-existence of Parent-child Relationship]”, at http://www.courts.go.jp/saiban/syurui_kazi/kazi_07_16/. 182 In recent practice, when certain conditions are met, it is common to file a claim for mediation or a lawsuit to seek child recognition with the biological father being the other party, and to have a determination within such procedure denying the parent-child relationship between the child and the father listed in the family register, instead of filing a lawsuit against the legal father to confirm the nonexistence of a parent-child relationship. Court website, “Ninchi Choutei [Mediation for Child Recognition]”, at http://www.courts.go.jp/saiban/syurui_kazi/kazi_07_18/. 183 711 in 2012, 767 in 2013, 899 in 2014, 921 in 2015, and 1,058 in 2016. Ministry of Justice website, “Kako 5 Nenkanno Kokueki Soushitsushasuuno Suii [5 Year Trends in Number of People Losing Nationality]”, at http://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/toukei_t_minj03.html. 86