The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database.
At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Photo: Lin Tsuei-yi, Taipei Times
The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday.
The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the spouse’s family registry, and the existing rule, in place since 1964, listed Taiwanese as being from China, Nikkei Asia reported.
Starting in May, the registry’s nationality entry for non-Japanese would be changed to “nationality/region,” allowing Taiwanese to choose Taiwan instead of China, it said.
Taiwanese who are already registered as being from China would also be able to change their nationality to Taiwan, the report added.
Government statistics showed that about 800 to 1,000 Taiwanese marry a Japanese national every year.
The ministry said that Taiwanese expats in Japan have been calling for a change to the registration system for decades.
Thanks to their decades-long efforts and the support of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council — a cross-party group in the Japanese Diet dedicated to promoting ties between Taipei and Tokyo — the Japanese government finally agreed to the change, the ministry said.
As of June 30 last year, there were about 67,000 Taiwanese living in Japan, the ninth-largest group among foreign residents.
The ministry said that the last time Japan made a similar change of allowing Taiwanese living in Japan to list their nationality as Taiwan was in 2012, on residence cards issued to foreigners living in the country long term.
Japan does not recognize Taiwan as a nation. The Japanese Ministry of Justice said the change came about so that the government could better understand which foreign laws would apply in cases such as a marriage.
It would also align the family registry with other government systems, such as a residence identification card that already allows regions to be registered as places of origin, the official said.
Although the Japanese justice ministry characterizes the change as a technical one, it touches on a sore spot for Japan-China relations, as Tokyo has voiced its concerns over Beijing’s military ambitions in the region out of worries there might be a spillover from a conflict over Taiwan.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) yesterday said that “the question of Taiwan is purely an internal affair of China, which brooks no foreign interference.”
“We urge Japan to stop making a sideshow on the question of Taiwan, and stop sending conflicting or wrong messages,” he added.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS