Some Japan Times articles on former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (who unsuccessfully ran for an Upper House seat in last Sunday's election) have said he was "granted Japanese nationality" in 2000. But this is not true.
"Granting" anyone Japanese nationality requires Diet approval and announcement in the Official Gazette (Kanpo). Fujimori merely activated the nationality his parents had retained for him in Lima, Peru, in 1938 in compliance with a 1924 amendment, to the 1899 law, which required notification of intent to retain nationality for a child born abroad within two weeks of its birth. (An imperial ordinance specified that the retention provision in the 1924 amendment applied to Japanese residing in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Peru. Mexico was added to the list in 1926.)
Fujimori did not file a notification of nationality choice in compliance with the 1985 revision of the 1950 Nationality Law. And he tacitly abandoned his Japanese nationality when he became the president of Peru. But failure to declare a choice, and tacit abandonment, are not the same as renunciation and do not result in loss of nationality without ministerial action.
Denaturalization by ministerial action requires, among other procedures, notification in the Official Gazette. Such action was never taken and rarely is. So Fujimori's Japanese register status did not change. He was therefore recognized as being a dual national from birth -- and still is.
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