MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2021) The Tokyo District Court has upheld the law forbidding dual citizenship, rejecting a lawsuit filed by Japanese citizens living in Europe who sought to retain their Japanese passports after obtaining a foreign one, media reported on Thursday.
The case was initiated by six people who lost Japanese citizenship after acquiring that of Switzerland and Liechtenstein as they moved to the European countries. Under the Nationality Law, the Japanese automatically lose their citizenship if they become nationals of foreign countries of their own will.
According to the NHK public broadcaster, the court rejected the claim of the plaintiffs, who insisted that denying dual citizenship is against Japan's basic law. Though the constitution envisages the freedom of all people to move to a foreign country and renounce their Japanese citizenship, it does not mention a right to keep Japanese nationality in such cases, the court said.
The nationality law, in turn, aims at preventing any legal contradictions that dual citizenship can cause and guaranteeing the freedom of anyone to change their nationality, the court added, calling the law reasonable and in line with the constitution.
