🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2710@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
 |I'm not sure what the difference between 'citizenship' and
 |'nationality' is. Some people use one, other people the other. Could
 |you elaborate on the difference: I'd like to know. 

IMHO Japanese gov't doesn't care much about what citizenship is. They
only care about nationality, and they think if you don't have Japanese
nationality you are not a citizen so you are treated as something less
important for the government. And in this sense re-nationalization
doesn't mean much - you are still a second-class person because you
were a non-Japanese resident. It's not whether you are a citizen or
not that is important - whether you were born in Japan as a
son/daughter of a Japanese parents is important. This is, of course,
just my opinion based on my past experience - maybe I am exaggerating
too much.

Even though Japan tries hard to emulate the system of other nations
since 1869, the idea that the people are owned by someone who is
superior (e.g. Shogun or Tenno) hardly fades away. The idea of
citizenship is based on an assumption that individuals of a nation
have independent contracts with the government, and this kind of
assumption cannot be applied to Japanese society. So my question: are
we (I am a Japanese so I use the term "we") really citizens?

// Kenji