Naturalisation Under the Nationality Act, and the Price of It
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Uruguay on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Uruguay to Japan · Becoming a citizen
Naturalisation in Japan is permitted rather than earned: article 4 says a foreign national may acquire Japanese nationality by naturalisation and that the Minister of Justice's permission is needed, and article 5 then lists five conditions the Minister may not waive except where the Act says so. Five years of continuous domicile, eighteen years of age with legal capacity under your own country's law, good conduct, the means to make a living, and - the condition that decides it for most people - having no nationality or being due to lose the one you have on acquiring Japanese nationality. Japan does not accept a second passport from an adult: article 11 strips Japanese nationality from anyone who takes a foreign one voluntarily, and article 14 makes a dual national born that way choose.
At a glance
- Residence required
- 5 years of continuous domicile
引き続き五年以上日本に住所を有すること, article 5(1)(i) of the Nationality Act. 住所 is domicile, which is narrower than mere residence (居所) used elsewhere in the same Act.
- Minimum age
- 18
Article 5(1)(ii) in the current text. It was twenty until the adulthood amendment, and the Ministry of Justice's own English translation still says twenty.
- Dual nationality for an adult
- Not available
Article 5(1)(v) requires the applicant to be losing their existing nationality, and article 11(1) takes Japanese nationality away from anyone who voluntarily acquires a foreign one.
- Where the nationality cannot be given up
- The Minister may waive the condition
Article 5(2) allows naturalisation without condition (v) where the person cannot lose their nationality regardless of their own intention and there are special circumstances in their family ties to Japanese nationals or in their situation.
- Born a dual national
- Must choose
Article 14(1): by twenty where both nationalities were held before turning eighteen, otherwise within two years of acquiring the second.
- Shorter route for a Japanese national's child
- 3 years of domicile or residence
Article 6(1) waives the five-year condition for the child of a person who was a Japanese national, for a person born in Japan, and for someone with ten years of residence.
- Shorter route for a spouse
- 3 years of domicile or residence, or 3 years married with 1 year of domicile
Article 7 of the Nationality Act.
- Right to naturalise where the conditions are met
- None
帰化をするには、法務大臣の許可を得なければならない in article 4(2). The verb throughout article 5 is 許可することができない - the Minister may not permit - which bounds the discretion without creating an entitlement.
Requirements
- Five years of continuous domicile in Japan
- Eighteen years of age or more, with the capacity to act under the law of your own country
- Good conduct
- Ability to make a living from your own assets or skills, or those of a spouse or a relative sharing your living expenses
- Being stateless, or losing your existing nationality on acquiring Japanese nationality
- No history of plotting or advocating the violent overthrow of the Constitution or the government, or of belonging to a party that does
- The Minister of Justice's permission, which is discretionary even where all the conditions are met
In detail
Japan does not let an adult hold two
Two provisions do the work and they point in opposite directions. Article 5(1)(v) stops a foreign national naturalising unless they are losing the nationality they have. Article 11 strips a Japanese national of Japanese nationality the moment they voluntarily take a foreign one, with no decision and no notice. Between them there is almost no space for an adult dual national, and what space there is comes from article 5(2), where the other country will not release its nationals and the Minister finds a special circumstance besides.
Domicile for five years, not residence
Article 5(1)(i) asks for 住所 - domicile - continuously for five years. The Act uses a different word, 居所, for mere residence, and uses it deliberately in the shortened routes: article 6 accepts domicile or residence for three years for the child of a former Japanese national, and article 7 does the same for a spouse. The main route takes the narrower word, and the distinction matters for anyone who kept a home elsewhere.
The translation is a decade behind on the age
Japan lowered the age of adulthood to eighteen and the Nationality Act moved with it. The Ministry of Justice's own English translation did not: it is the Act at its 2008 state and prints twenty in article 5(1)(ii) and twenty-two in article 14(1). Neither number is the law. This is the clearest case in this record of why the translation site cannot be read as the statute, and the site says so itself.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Uruguay
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«日本国民でない者（以下「外国人」という。）は、帰化によつて、日本の国籍を取得することができる。 ２ 帰化をするには、法務大臣の許可を得なければならない。 第五条 法務大臣は、次の条件を備える外国人でなければ、その帰化を許可することができない。 一 引き続き五年以上日本に住所を有すること。 二 十八歳以上で本国法によつて行為能力を有すること。 三 素行が善良であること。 四 自己又は生計を一にする配偶者その他の親族の資産又は技能によつて生計を営むことができること。 五 国籍を有せず、又は日本の国籍の取得によつてその国籍を失うべきこと。 六 日本国憲法 施行の日以後において、 日本国憲法 又はその»Our translation - not official
A person who is not a Japanese national (hereinafter 'foreign national') may acquire Japanese nationality by naturalisation. (2) To naturalise, the permission of the Minister of Justice must be obtained.
Ours. Two sentences, and the second is the one that governs: the Act creates a possibility, not a right.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«法務大臣は、次の条件を備える外国人でなければ、その帰化を許可することができない。 一 引き続き五年以上日本に住所を有すること。 二 十八歳以上で本国法によつて行為能力を有すること。 三 素行が善良であること。 四 自己又は生計を一にする配偶者その他の親族の資産又は技能によつて生計を営むことができること。 五 国籍を有せず、又は日本の国籍の取得によつてその国籍を失うべきこと。 六 日本国憲法 施行の日以後において、 日本国憲法 又はその下に成立した政府を暴力で破壊することを企て、若しくは主張し、又はこれを企て、若しくは主張する政党その他の団体を結成し、若しくはこれに加入したことがないこと。 ２»Our translation - not official
The Minister of Justice may not permit the naturalisation of a foreign national who does not meet the following conditions: (i) having had a domicile in Japan continuously for five years or more; (ii) being eighteen years of age or more and having the capacity to act under the law of the person's own country.
Ours. Eighteen in the text in force. Capacity is tested against the applicant's own national law, so an applicant from a country with a higher age of majority is held to that.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«五 国籍を有せず、又は日本の国籍の取得によつてその国籍を失うべきこと。 六 日本国憲法 施行の日以後において、 日本国憲法 又はその下に成立した政府を暴力で破壊することを企て、若しくは主張し、又はこれを企て、若しくは主張する政党その他の団体を結成し、若しくはこれに加入したことがないこと。 ２ 法務大臣は、外国人がその意思にかかわらずその国籍を失うことができない場合において、日本国民との親族関係又は境遇につき特別の事情があると認めるときは、その者が 前項第五号 に掲げる条件を備えないときでも、帰化を許可することができる。 第六条 次の各号 の一に該当する外国人で現に日本に住所を有するものについて»Our translation - not official
(v) having no nationality, or being due to lose that nationality on acquisition of Japanese nationality.
Ours. The condition that rules out a second passport, stated as a fact about the other country's law rather than as a renunciation the applicant has to perform.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«法務大臣は、外国人がその意思にかかわらずその国籍を失うことができない場合において、日本国民との親族関係又は境遇につき特別の事情があると認めるときは、その者が 前項第五号 に掲げる条件を備えないときでも、帰化を許可することができる。»Our translation - not official
Where a foreign national cannot lose their nationality regardless of their own intention, the Minister of Justice may, on finding special circumstances in their family relationship with a Japanese national or in their situation, permit naturalisation even where the person does not meet the condition listed in item (v) of the preceding paragraph.
Ours. The escape for nationals of countries that do not let anyone go. It is discretionary and it requires a special circumstance beyond the impossibility itself.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«第十一条 日本国民は、自己の志望によつて外国の国籍を取得したときは、日本の国籍を失う。 ２ 外国の国籍を有する日本国民は、その外国の法令によりその国の国籍を選択したときは、日本の国籍を失う。 第十二条 出生により外国の国籍を取得した日本国民で国外で生まれたものは、 戸籍法（昭和二十二年法律第二百二十四号） の定めるところにより日本の国籍を留保する意思を表示しなければ、その出生の時にさかのぼつて日本の国籍を失う。 第十三条 外国の国籍を有する日本国民は、法務大臣に届け出ることによつて、日本の国籍を離脱することができる。 ２ 前項 の規定による届出をした者は、その届出の時に日本の国籍を失う。 （国»Our translation - not official
Article 11 A Japanese national loses Japanese nationality on acquiring a foreign nationality by their own choice. (2) A Japanese national having a foreign nationality loses Japanese nationality on selecting that country's nationality under that country's laws.
Ours. It operates automatically. Nothing in the article requires a decision, a notification or a hearing: the nationality is lost at the moment the foreign one is taken.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«第十四条 外国の国籍を有する日本国民は、外国及び日本の国籍を有することとなつた時が十八歳に達する以前であるときは二十歳に達するまでに、その時が十八歳に達した後であるときはその時から二年以内に、いずれかの国籍を選択しなければならない。»Our translation - not official
Article 14 A Japanese national having a foreign nationality must select one of the nationalities - by the time they reach twenty where the time at which they came to hold the foreign and the Japanese nationality was before they reached eighteen, and within two years of that time where it was after they reached eighteen.
Ours. This is the obligation on someone who was born with two nationalities, and it is separate from article 11, which is about taking one later.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(ii)being twenty years of age or more and having the capacity to act according to the person's national law; 三素行が善良であること。 (iii)being a person of good conduct; 四自己又は生計を一にする配偶者その他の親族の資産又は技能によつて生計を営むことができること。 (iv)being able to make a living through the person's own assets or skills, or through those of»Known to be out of date. It is wrong now. The translation is the Act at Act No. 88 of 2008 and the age has since been lowered to eighteen; the current Japanese reads 十八歳以上. The same translation's article 14(1) still says a dual national must choose before reaching twenty-two, where the text in force says twenty.
The Ministry of Justice's English for the same item.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Nationality Act was read in full in the e-Gov consolidated text. It is a short Act - twenty articles - and nothing in it was skipped.
Article 5 also carries a sixth condition about plotting or advocating the violent overthrow of the Constitution, and membership of a party that does. It is quoted in no excerpt here but it was read.
The Act says nothing about a language requirement, an examination, a fee or a processing time. Those belong to the Ministry of Justice's administrative practice, which was not read.
Permanent residence is a different thing from naturalisation and is granted under article 22 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which was not read for this record.
- consolidates国籍法 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search)
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- publishesNationality Act - Japanese/English
Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice) · consolidated to 2008
About this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source