3 The Issue of Statelessness in Japan Despite the General Assembly encouraging States to consider acceding to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,82 Japan has signed neither. There has been discussion in the National Diet on this topic several times.83 For example, Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Mr. Kuriyama summarized the content of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness on behalf of the government on April 17, 1981 during the Lower House Committee on Foreign Affairs: “The Convention grants a stateless person born within the territory of a state, the nationality of that state, and establishes certain rules for granting nationality to those in danger of becoming stateless.” In explaining why Japan had not become a signatory, he said, “Our Nationality Act adopts the principle of jus sanguinis based on patrilineal decent. This clashes with the jus soli of the Convention.” However, on other occasions (April 27 and May 28 in 1979), Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Mr. Harunori Kaya spoke on behalf of the government in the same Committee: “the two Conventions merit accession or ratification when conditions allow us to do so… We will consider the issue so that the Diet may ratify these Conventions in due course.” 84 The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness aims to prevent statelessness, and the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons aims to improve the status of stateless persons. Although Japan has not signed either, they provide a useful framework in analyzing stateless issues in Japan. The following outlines the situation of statelessness in Japan from the perspective of prevention and how stateless persons have been treated. (1) Prevention of Statelessness The 1889 Constitution of the Empire of Japan stipulates in Article 18 that “the conditions necessary for being a Japanese subject shall be determined by law.” Pursuant to this constitutional requirement, the first Japan’s Nationality Act was promulgated and 82 E.g., A/Res.61.137,25 January 2007, para. 4. Searched through the minutes database systems of the Diet Sessions (http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/cgi-bin/KENSAKU/) 84 However, an interview with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 9, 2009, indicated that the Japanese Government is not considering the issue of accession to these Conventions at the moment. 83 33