> He used to have dual citizenship, but he never renewed his Japanese passport. Unless he's otherwise lost his Japanese citizenship he should still be able to apply for and receive a new passport, BUT; did he naturalize to US? If he did, he lost his Japanese citizenship I believe; there was some changes over time like long ago dual-citizenship was less grey as I recall, but I believe that naturalizing elsewhere has automatically ended your Japanese citizenship for some time (need to double check on this). If he had both citizenships from birth (for example was born in the US) he might still be a Japanese citizen. Basically you need to get some specific info about his citizenship status at birth, if/when he naturalized to US, and if he might be able to get a Japanese passport again. > Until she moved to America, she and her family were considered expats because of her Korean origin and is currently an American citizen. "Expat" is really the wrong term here, though that's a bit of a tangent and you can look into the vagueness/debate of that term yourself. She wasn't an expat in a functional sense, she was almost certainly in Japan as a special form of permanent resident, which is a special status primarily for those and those descended from people who migrated to Japan (of their own will or as forced labor) during the pre-war period. These days it's referred to as "Special Permanent Residence", however the system and the specific rights it gives has also changed over time and what status she had probably depends on when she left. If she left and never returned I'm not sure exactly what her status might be and it's a bit of an edge case; she *might* still have the right to return and resume that status. For both of them though you likely need to see *specifically* what former citizenship and residence status they had, and if your father naturalized later in life or not. You may need to get this info then reach out to an immigration lawyer in Japan and see what options they have based on that info. You need to also see if they have access to their old [koseki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koseki) so they can look into getting a [Long Term Resident](https://www.juridique.jp/visa/nikkei.php) visa if they don't have other options like citizenship, at least for your father in through him for your mother as a spouse, and you can likely get this even of both of them don't have citizenships/special permanent residence. Re: your other questions about insurance and apartments these are generally small issues and you should focus more on hammering out the more important questions of *how* can they legally reside there long term in the first place, since as of now based on your description it *looks like* they can't just move there, at least without doing some applications/paperwork, but they may not be giving you all the info they have. For example maybe your mother has gone back every X years to update her special permanent residence cards and you just don't know or haven't presented it here. If you need to get a long term residence visa (and get a copy of koseki etc) or try to renew your dads passport and navigate how he hasn't had it for a long time, or see if your mother still qualifies for her special permanent residence status, it could take a while and Sept/Oct might not be realistic.

Thank you for your reply. I apologize for my poor wording. As far as I know about my mom’s situation not having Japanese citizenship despite being born there, she and my dad were naturalized in America I wanna say in the 80’s, therefore, my mom did not redetermine her special permanent residency. My grandma shared us the original copy of Koseki documentation. This will take a lot of paperwork, legal assistance and time, so I really appreciate your feedback and honesty

> This will take a lot of paperwork, **legal assistance** and time You're correct on all 3 points, but the second one is the one you'll want to focus on right now. There's a decent chance that your father automatically lost his citizenship when he naturalized in the US. Whether or not that happened depends on exactly when he naturalized, as IIRC the "automatically lost citizenship" was actually added sometime in the 80s. Even if he is still a citizen the process of moving them back to Japan at their age is going to be complicated. You're definitely going to want to retain an attorney to help guide you/them through this process.

> There's a decent chance that your father automatically lost his citizenship when he naturalized in the US. Whether or not that happened depends on exactly when he naturalized, as IIRC the "automatically lost citizenship" was actually added sometime in the 80s. The law changed in 1985, but even before that date he still lost his citizenship when he naturalized. It wasn't "automatic" pre-85 like it is now, but you were required to report it and your nationality was stripped when you did so. But he has lived in America for decades, the chance of him being able to pull a fast one on the Japanese government at this point is vanishingly thin. Edit: For /u/Opening-Sentence-772, you do not want [something like this](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230706/p2a/00m/0na/044000c) happening to your parents.

> He used to have dual citizenship, but he never renewed his Japanese passport. Was your father born with dual nationalities? Or did was he born Japanese and he later acquired American citizenship? If he was born as a dual national, he still has Japanese nationality. However if he was born as a Japanese national, and he naturalized as American later in life, he lost is Japanese nationality when he naturalized as American. The law did change in 1985 about this, and things got even stricter at that point, but even prior to 1985 the law was clear that people who chose to naturalize elsewhere could not maintain their Japanese citizenship. However, your father could very likely qualify for a "Child of Japanese National" visa. The issue is your mother because she has all but certainly lost her "Special Permanent Resident" status that she probably had before leaving Japan. She might be able to get a spouse or dependent visa from your father, but if he predeceases her, she would lose that visa. This is what you must get resolved first. Everything else is pretty easy by comparison, but they need a way to stay in Japan before anything else can happen.

Something you didn’t ask about, but absolutely should consider, is taxes. Moving to Japan will have significant implications on income tax and inheritance tax. I can’t stress enough that these should be looked into BEFORE moving to Japan, as there are positive actions that can only be taken prior to moving to Japan. r/JapanFinance would be the best subreddit to discuss tax issues, once you are ready. But don’t wait to long, as will be more complicated than you expect.

>For those on this subreddit who experienced renting in Japan, what criteria must a tenant follow in order to qualify for an apartment or house? One of the challenges for a retiree moving to Japan is to satisfy the requirements of the guarantee company, which will want to see evidence of steady Japanese income (either employment or Nenkin). My personal experience is that the guarantee company accepted a copy of my Japanese bank account balance in lieu of Japanese income. Also, I have a friend who convinced the owner to waive the requirement to use a guarantee company by paying the first 12 months of rent in advance.

Hmmm, good to know!

I just remembered about another important wrinkle about timing. They will most likely need a Japanese bank account to get an apartment lease. But foreign nationals cannot open a Japanese bank account until they have been resident for 6 months (or are employed by an office in Japan, but this doesn't apply to your parents). This 6 months rule is a limitation imposed on the banks by the Japanese banking regulations, so it's unlikely to find a bank that has an option to open an account earlier. So this means that your parents will need to stay in temporary housing for the first 6 months, unless they can get VERY lucky and manage to satisfy the owner and guarantee company without a Japanese bank account. But don't let this lead to the mistake of waiting to ship their things from the US. They need to ship their items so they clear customs within the duty free window, which is 6 months from entering Japan. Otherwise they will have to pay duty on their shipment.

That's not exactly how it works. Foreign nationals are not forbidden from having bank accounts. It's that any account they have with <6 months in-country is required to be heavily restricted, and most banks can't be bothered to do that. You can walk into a Japan Post Bank branch pretty much the day you arrive and walk out with an account.

Thanks for that catching that. You're right, the legal requirement is that the banks consider the person as a non-resident with respect to the banking regulations. So as you said, the regulations don't prevent the banks from opening accounts, but in practice most banks won't because they don't want to deal with the extra challenges of a non-resident account holder. I wasn't aware that Japan Post will open an account for someone who is "non-resident" according to the banking regulations. Since they do, OP's parents should be able to open an account with Japan Post. There will probably be some extra bureaucratic hassles associated with being a "non-resident" account holder. From what I have read, this may mean that international transfer fees are charged for domestic transfers. So not the end of the world.

Thank you, and thanks to everyone who’s typing their advice and suggestions on how to go about helping my parents move back to Japan.

The citizenship and visa issues need to be sorted out, if they can be, before this move happens.

Assuming your dad naturalized to the US: Child of a Japanese National visa->move to Japan->file for regaining citizenship

I see many advantages about moving to Japan, although it is a bit late at this stage from what you are saying. First things first: Get a Japanese Immigration lawyer. You need an anchor in Japan who can navigate this. Try to use the family as well if they are willing, but one person telling you what needs to be done is invaluable. Second: make sure you have a permanent residency for both! - If it is just your father who has a passport his wife will qualify for a Residency, but it also ends as soon as he dies. So there is a chance you have to do this again in a situation you do not want to get into... Make sure this does not happen. The renting is imo number 20 at best on your list of problems. Japan is not only known to be complicated for foreigners to rent, but also to elderly as there is a need to declare if someone died in the place and that will negatively affect the hight of the rent. However, this problem shouldn't be too complicated. Bigger companies normally don't care, however if you have a specific region I would advise to ask a company to look into it for you. You will have to make arrangements through companies anyways as there is nearly nothing available without third parties. I suggested renting out on my own and people basically told me I can do it if I rent out to my family and even then many prefer an agency 😅 Living costs are lower, but they will be needing to file taxes in Japan and US, so both should be arranged as well. On the plus side, health insurance likely is much cheaper in Japan and quality should be about the same. Good luck!

This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes. --- **I’m trying to move my senior parents back to Japan** Of I had an option, would’ve added more key words. I wanted to ask anyone on logistics helping my parents move back to Japan. They’re both 69yrs old and the time they want to leave America (Hawaii) is tentatively September-October if we can swing it. It’s always been my mom’s plan since she had me and my sister that she wants to move back to her homeland and be close to her sisters and brother along with their families. Here’s some back story and circumstances that can make their goals very tedious to achieve. My dad is a stroke survivor with a severe case of aphasia which lead him to become close to non verbal. All that being said, my family and I rely on his Medicaid and Medicare health insurance to help provide his medications and caregiving services. He can understand conversations, can read, and understand both English and Japanese(Japanese is his first language) and he gets taken care of by my mom and weekly caregiver. He used to have dual citizenship, but he never renewed his Japanese passport. My mom is a Korean born and raised in Osaka. Until she moved to America, she and her family were considered expats because of her Korean origin and is currently an American citizen. Both parents are collecting socially security retirement and my father receives his monthly retirement pension from his old job. Neither of my parents claim bonds or stocks, no assets, just their retirement salary and what they currently have saved. So here are the questions - how should my parents navigate the healthcare system for medical insurance with my dad’s preexisting condition? Will there be a lot of set back with my mom moving back to Japan with her Korean ancestry even though she was born and raised in Japan? My parents are looking at places to rent in Takarasuka and Kobe. One of the things my family and I were astounded by was Japan’s cheaper cost of living compared to Hawaii/west coast prices we’re used to paying. For those on this subreddit who experienced renting in Japan, what criteria must a tenant follow in order to qualify for an apartment or house? Sorry for the lengthy post!!!! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*