cc wrote:

> Why does "fluency"

Not "fluency," knowledge of their own language.

> and knowledge of Japanese culture has to equate "being
> Japanese" ?

Because such knowledge is more important than a simple piece of paper or where
one happened to be born. It seems former Foreign Minister Tanaka has caused a
stir by her claims that the children of the abducted Japanese remaining in
North Korea, are North Korean, making their "return" to Japan difficult.
Unless the abductees have registered the births of their children the way they
registered their marriages, she is correct, and not just from a legal
standpoint. By the families' own admission, those children have not known
themselves or their parents to be anything but North Korean; and quite
frankly, face a better life continuing to grow up as educated North Korean
elites, than as virtual aliens in Japan.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind young French people to be as ignorant as young
Japanese, or to feel as alienated as recently repatriated Japanese born and
raised abroad since WWII. Others would consider that a sad if not scandalous
thing.

> > Debito is Japanese, but people can readily tell he wasn't born that way,
> no matter how good he claims he sounds on the phone.
>
> Idem for Arnold Scharzenegger in California. And ?

No, in the US, it is much harder to determine such a thing, because even his
accent need not be a giveaway. But an American born caucasian Debito with a
distinct accent, is more Japanese, than many native born Japanese who would
discriminate against him, who do not need to live with discrimination
themselves.

> > On the other hand, there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who
> are
> > native Japanese if not for their lack of citizenship.
>
> They are native Japanese speakers. Nationality is irrelevant.

Precisely why Japanese should not make such a fuss about the origins of such
people. Now try to convince them of it. The only reason I make such
comparisons, is because they need to have it pointed out.

Just today, I signed up at a new video rental two blocks up the street
offering video and music rentals for TEN yen each. When the man asked me for
ID, I handed him my alien registration, as I usually do, just to see what he
would do. And he reacted just as people, including people who know I am
foreign, always have: he had to look it over for a while to figure it out, and
there was an immediate and visible change in his demeanor, as when for
example, he asked me if I wanted my alien card back to copy down my personal
information, as if I didn't know my own address or how to write it after seven
years. How stupid does he think foreigners are?

As a matter of fact, his reaction was more mild than most, and he was not
overtly curt or rude, nor did he act like a racist, as when real estate agents
hung up on my wife when she revealed over the phone during conversation that
she was married to a gaikokujin. He was probably simply ignorant.

And I registered my name there in my Japanese kanji, if anyone cares. I didn't
feel the need to have a katakana or romaji membership card to make people
notice me unnecessarily.

> >And if Japan were not such an exclusive country, they would be Japanese
> already.
>
> Possible.

No, fact. If Japan were one of those countries which allowed people to be
citizens by birth, such people would be Japanese already.

> Also possible that if Japan had been more opened, they'd be
> millions of foreign residents, like in many other countries.

And what would be wrong with that? Over 300,000 immigrant laborers per year
for the next 50 years, is precisely what the UN recommends to maintain the
Japanese economy and population.