Giving Up My Singapore Citizenship

A few people have asked if I would take up Japanese citizenship, which is to say, give up my Singapore citizenship since dual citizenship is a nono for us. I spoke with a few friends who are living overseas on that topic and only 1 friend has that strong resolution to give up his red passport. While getting a Permanent Resident (PR) status in Japan may be difficult, naturalization appears to be much easier. The only requirement is to have been here for a minimum of 5 years. That friend has been here for 5 years now, 4 of which was spent as a college student which apparently does not count towards the 5 years, so he’s still got another 5 years to go.

For me, however, holding the Singapore passport provides too many benefits that I cannot give up for now—or rather, don’t want to give up. But when I arrive at this point, sometimes I feel pity that the only reason I want to keep my citizenship is for the benefits and not for patriotism. I wonder where that has gone if it had, as I believe, existed in the first place. I guess that’s the fruit of our pragmatic upbringing.

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