The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling and denied Japanese nationality to nine children with Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers who are not married.
The Nationality Law says that a child born out of wedlock to a non-Japanese mother is only recognized as a citizen if the Japanese father admits paternity prior to the child's birth or marries the mother before the child turns 20. In the case of the nine kids, the fathers came forward after they were born but did not wed the mothers.
Presiding Judge Hidetoshi Somiya said the law is justified and does not interfere with the children's constitutional right to equality.
Somiya also said the court does not have the authority to grant the children citizenship.
"The decision to grant nationality is an inherent right of the state," he said. (continued)
This country is facing a crisis as is with its diminishing birthrates. It would seem prudent to begin embracing a new workforce to help provide revenue for their rapidly aging population. Who's going to pay their nationalized healthcare costs in 20-30 years? Let's go folks, robots can't do everything. And getting the "baby-making machines" fired up isn't going to help much either.
