Q. You rather condescendingly described international couples in Japan as "married" but not married. As a non-representative citizen, does that make you "Japanese" but not Japanese?
A. No, it makes me Japanese by any non-arbitrarily meaningful understanding of the word.
Q. Non-arbitrarily meaningful?
A. There are many arbitrarily meaningless ways of describing somebody's Japanesitude: how well they speak the language, how culturally aligned they are with some theoretical average, how they look etc., but the precise metrics vary considerably depending on who you ask, so ultimately the high court of the drunk old guy at the bar is not a reliable indicator of somebody's national identity.
The only non-arbitrarily meaningful measure is that defined by law (and by that virtue, the dictionary also). By law, I am a Japanese citizen, ergo I am Japanese, ergo some more, I have a koseki, and am married, and have a Japanese passport, and could stand for office if the very idea didn't bring me out in hives.
Q. Ergo?!
A. Sorry, The Matrix sequel was on the wireless. I saw several seconds. It was more than enough to do its damage.
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