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The story
It’s been reported that Danish youth international defender Tobias Storm (22, NEC Nijmegen) holds both Danish and Japanese citizenship. His father is Danish and his mother is Japanese, and he reportedly conversed in Japanese with Japan national team players Sano Kota and Ogawa Koki. The Japan Football Association (JFA) is said to have reached out to him in the past. In a thread on 5ch’s Geino/Sports Express+ board, opinions were split — both over soccer’s rules on choosing international eligibility, and over just how well Japan’s “nationality selection” system for dual citizens actually functions in practice.
Could Danish youth international defender Tobias Storm ever end up choosing Japan?
The 22-year-old Storm joined Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen this summer. Born to a Danish father and a Japanese mother, he reportedly also spoke Japanese with Japan national team midfielder Sano Kota and forward Ogawa Koki, who left Nijmegen this past summer.
A fixture in Denmark’s youth national teams and considered a promising prospect, Storm holds both Danish and Japanese passports, according to Campo. The outlet notes that “once his time in the youth national teams is over, it isn’t certain whether he’ll go on to play for Denmark’s senior team,” leaving open the possibility that he could instead choose to represent Japan.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Defenders don't get held to quite that bar.
That's just because Japan doesn't actually enforce its no-dual-citizenship rule.
Holding both a Danish and a Japanese passport —
that's weird, right?
Past 20 you're supposed to pick one, and if you choose the other country your Japanese citizenship lapses.
So how old can you actually get away with this?
If you never file, can you just keep both passports for life?
Well, if he picks Japan because he genuinely wants to, I'm fine with that.
Not bad — "Storm" (嵐, also the name of the boy band Arashi).
Same story with Nagata and Germany — he ended up sticking with Germany too.
He'd have to actually live in Japan, but his club's in Europe lol — not realistic.
This isn't naturalization — he already holds Japanese citizenship.
Seriously? Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship, so wouldn't his Japanese citizenship have lapsed the moment he got Danish citizenship?
Renho never gave up her Taiwanese citizenship, but she wasn't stripped of her Japanese citizenship either, was she?
I think some naturalized citizens from Brazil ended up dual-national too.
He's shorter than your average Japanese defender.
Not expecting much.
He's actually 191cm though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Storm
Is the height on this page just wrong, then?
That page has a bunch of errors — even his squad number's wrong.
• Became a dual national before turning 20 → must choose by age 22
• Became a dual national after turning 20 → must choose within 2 years of that
So this guy picked Japanese citizenship at 20, then got Danish citizenship on top of it afterward.
Which means he's got until 2 years after getting the Danish passport — up to age 24 — to choose between Japan and Denmark lol
What are you talking about? This guy's had both Japanese and Danish citizenship since birth. He hasn't "chosen" anything.
Holding multiple nationalities is legal.
The "nationality selection" is just a "declaration" to Japan saying "I will retain my Japanese citizenship" — it's not actually picking one and giving up the other.
Filing that declaration is a legal obligation, but there's no penalty provision for failing to, so it can be filed anytime with zero consequences.
It's estimated that most people who are obligated to file it never actually do.
The Foreign Ministry's own guidance is to issue Japanese passports to anyone with Japanese citizenship regardless of whether they've filed the declaration.
First I'm hearing that most adults who end up dual national just leave it alone and stay dual indefinitely.
For US-Japan dual nationals you can basically double-dip — use the US passport entering the US, and the Japanese passport entering Japan.
Actually his numbers are better than that Shiogai guy's.
He's still young, so he could end up in the national team picture too.
German 2nd division stats:
Shiogai: 5 games, 0G 0A — bench player
Fukuda: 24 games, 8G 0A — key starter
No way that's true.
Even Japan's weak Honda-era national team beat Denmark outright at the World Cup, back when Bendtner and Tomasson were in their prime.
Wait, did Denmark even make the last World Cup? lol
Background and key points of this discussion
Japan’s Nationality Act requires anyone who becomes a dual national before turning 20 to make a nationality “selection” by age 22, and anyone who becomes one after turning 20 to do so within two years. But this “selection” amounts to nothing more than a declaration that one will retain Japanese citizenship — there’s no provision forcing renunciation of the other nationality, and no penalty for failing to comply, so in practice plenty of people never file and simply stay dual nationals. The case of Renho’s Taiwanese citizenship, raised in the thread, was cited as an example of just how loosely this system is actually enforced. It’s a common misconception that Storm would have had to naturalize — he’s actually held Japanese citizenship since birth — and since international eligibility in soccer can still be switched up until a player’s senior-team competitive debut, there’s genuine room within the rules for the JFA’s past outreach to him.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geino/Sports Express+) thread “[Soccer] Danish youth international DF Storm: “I know I have a chance since I also hold Japanese citizenship” — JFA reportedly reached out in the past.”
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