[War] Japan: "Sanguinis ver Soli?"

[Michael Downey]

"Sanguinis ver Soli?"
Prime Minister Shirow Ahkahita
Japan
4 February 2013
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Prime Minister Ahkahita had never been one to sleep in late. Japan
itself was a country were no one really had the time to snooze into
the late morning or early afternoon. Ahkahita relished the few times
he was able to sleep in, and thus consume more copious amounts of saki
and beer beforehand, but the role of Prime Minister had made such
times few and far between. In fact since officially beginning his
duties as the country's leader, Ahkahita was waking up earlier than he
ever did as a businessman, mayor or assemblyman. Akhahita barely had
time to smoke.

On that note, he reached into the pocket of his Jinbei and withdrew a
Marlboro and his trusty lighter. It was freezing in Japan at this time
of year so Ahkahita found himself lounging in a small greenhouse built
onto the upper level of the Kantei, the official PM residence. His
need for nicotine sated by those first few puffs, the PM withdrew his
Blackberry and hit the first number on the speedial.

"Just because you never sleep doesn't mean other people don't," Kiyomi
said irritably when she picked up after eight long rings.

"I wanted to talk to you before the cabinet meeting," replied
Ahkahita, unphased by her tone. "Any developments on Omaguchi's death?
NPA told you anything more about the assassin, this Hwang guy?"

"Takashi Hwang," said Kiyomi. "A Zainichi Korean born in Osaka."

The 'Zainichi' were the six hundred thousand or so permanent residence
of Japan of Korean descent, the majority of which were born in Japan
but lacked Japanese citizenship. "The NPA isn't releasing anything to
the media yet, but they've told me that Hwang has fully admitted to
the murder and claimed his motivation was revenge for discrimination
of Zainichi by the government."

Ahkahita sighed and took a long drag on his cigarette. Race and
ethnicity was such a touchy subject in Japan. Beneath an advanced and
enlightened veneer, his country had a racist ugly side. Once the NPA
made its findings public to the media, which could be within the next
twenty-four hours, it would make the majority of the population who
were rather uninformed about the Zainichi and their problems suddenly
acutely aware.

"And we're sure that Hwang was acting alone?"

"The act of a lone madman," answered Kiyomi. "Like Lee Oswald or Yamaguchi."

"People would argue about Oswald, but whatever," noted Ahkahita.
"Okay, thanks. Call Matsui and get him to have the NPA delay their
press release as long as possible. I want to speak with the Cabinet
and handle the situation as much as possible before the public
reaction."

"Is this going to affect our naturalization plans?"

"I have no idea. See you at the meeting."

He thumbed the line closed and took one more drag of his cigarette
before throwing it into the pot of a nearby Bonsai tree.
-----

It had taken the Cabinet longer to assemble than Ahkahita anticipated
and thus he hadn't had time for a smoke beforehand. Now he was
irritable. Or more irritable than usual, as he was usually irritable
all the time. As they all took their seats, he made note of who was
there and how they were going to react. The DPJ has become divided on
this issue before, which had made pushing it through very difficult,
especially with the LDP in direct opposition. Omaguchi had been a big
proponent of naturalization of permanent residence, but Niwa was more
conservative and always been on the fence when it came to the
Zainichi. However new Chief Cabinet Secretary had never struck
Ahkahita as being one of those radical idiots who wanted Japan to be
of 'pure' Japanese race.

"If everyone is ready," remarked Ahkahita. Everyone took their seats,
a few grabbing one last cup pf Genmaicha from the refreshment table.
"I think there's been enough whispering and rumors outside of this
room to educate everyone as to the purpose of this meeting."

"You want to naturalize the Zainichi," said Niwa. Ahkahita nodded in
acknowledgement.

"Something akin to that," said the PM. "We are a society that phases a
large problem. That problem being that Japan, as a country, is dying.
Not from disease or poverty or starvation, but from the one thing that
kills every individual sooner or later: time. The death rate surpasses
the birthrate more and more each year, while the number of elderly
people catches up to the number of young people and will, by all
projections, surpass it.Not only does this mean that within the next
decade will will have to spend hundreds of billions of yen on medical
and home care for the elderly, drastically increasing the tax burden,
but we will have fewer people to both pay the cost of such care and to
act as a workforce in our economy."

"And naturalizing the Zainichi will solve this problem," said Niwa skeptically.

"No, but its a step. It's not so much the Zainichi but the way in
which we bring new citizens into our country. As it is now, Japanese
citizenship is derived purely from Ju Sanguinis, having a Japanese
citizen as a parent. We are going to reform the Nationality Law of
1950 to make Japan both a Jus Sanguinis and a Jus Soli country, a
country where one can be a natural born citizen both from heritage and
by virtue of being born upon our sovereign territory."

There as considerable talk amongst the Ministers as they discussed
this declaration. Ahkahita have them two or three minutes to talk
before regaining their attention.

"As I was saying, this will be done by replacing the Nationality Law
of 1950 with the proposed Citizenship Law, the draft of which you have
all been given."

"You said this was a step," noted Finance Minister Takamatsu.

"There are very few First World nations whose birthrates allow for
natural growth or maintenance of population levels," explained the PM.
"South Korea and Taiwan suffer from the same problem. Russia is in
even more dire straits than we are. The reason that Canada, America,
France, the United Kingdom and other nations of Europe and North
America do not face this dilemma is because they accept, and
naturalize, immigrants. The Citizenship Law will move us closer to a
program of encouraging more immigration into Japan by people from Asia
and abroad."

"There will be resistance from the LDP," cautioned Niwa. Ahkahita shrugged.

"At this point the LDP is going to resist just about anything we do,"
countered the PM. "But other population increase policies, while
logical and commendable, will not solve this problem fast enough. I am
not talking about opening the floodgates for the dregs of the world.
Quite the contrary, we are one of the most developed societies on
Earth. We should be able to attract many desirable immigrants to our
doorstep. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. The issue at
hand is the Citizenship Act, which I will being introducing to the
Diet once the wording has been properly vetted. As the senior
leadership of our party, I expect complete solidarity from the cabinet
and for you to use all your influence on the other Parliamentary
members. That will be all, gentlemen."

The Cabinet got up from their seats and slowly departed the conference
room, save for Niwa who remained seated.

"You took that better than I thought," said Ahkahita casually.

"I'm no racist," replied Niwa. "Naturalizing the Zainichi will further
integrate them into our society, and give us over half a million new
votes come next election. But if more immigration is our key goal, we
have to be careful. Patient. Cautious."

"Jus Soli first, then we relax immigration laws," assured Ahkahita.

"Some will accuse you of bowing to terrorism."

"Let them," shrugged the PM. "This was part of my election platform
anyway, it's not like the LDP can claim Omaguchi's death spurred me to
do it. I've just come to realize that Japan can't hide its head in the
sand anymore."

"What?" asked Niwa, not recognizing the American proverb. Ahkahita
shook his head.

"Nothing, just a saying I heard at Princeton. Get the legal department
working on the bill language."
---

Actions:
1) Introduce the Citizenship Law to replace the Nationality Law of 1950
2) Japanese citizenship will now be bestowed both via Jus Sanguinis
and Jus Soli.
3) Therefore, all Zainichi born on Japanese soil will retroactively
become Japanese citizens.
4) Prepare the Cabinet for more liberal immigration policies, to be
enacted at a later date.