Surprising celebrities who have taken Japanese citizenship

2022-09-01

To obtain Japanese citizenship, a foreigner must be naturalized in Japan.

There are countless famous people around the world, and some of them have chosen to become naturalized and take Japanese citizenship.

This article is about famous people who have obtained Japanese citizenship.

Rui Ramos

Rui Ramos is a soccer player from Brazil.

He was born in 1957 in Rio de Janeiro, a popular tourist city in Brazil.

When his father, an accountant, died, he left home and moved in with his aunt to improve his soccer skills.

After coming to Japan to study, he joined the Yomiuri Soccer Club. Later, after the J-League started in 1993, he moved to Verdy Kawasaki Soccer Club.

Together with Tomoyoshi Miura and others, he was a popular soccer player since the start of the J-League. He contributed to the popularization of professional soccer leagues in Japan.

Salvatore Cuomo

Salvatore Cuomo is an Italian chef and entrepreneur.

He was born in 1972 in Naples, southern Italy, to an Italian father and a Japanese mother.

Influenced by his father, who worked as a chef in Naples, he immersed himself in the culinary world at the age of 11 and began his training.


Cuomo moved to Japan with his father after he opened an Italian restaurant in Japan in the 1980s.

But perhaps because he did not have a good experience in Japan, he returned to Italy after a year. After retraining at culinary school, he returned to Japan.

After returning to Japan, Cuomo opened a Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Tokyo after spending several years researching Japanese eating habits and the market. The restaurant was a great success and contributed to the popularization of Italian cuisine in Japan.

Hakuho Sho

Hakuho Sho is a sumo wrestler from Mongolia, born in 1985.

He is the son of a gold medalist wrestler and a former surgeon and spent a carefree childhood without financial hardships.

Sho wanted to become a sumo wrestler and came to Japan in 2000 with another Mongolian.

After his first appearance in the ring in 2013, he rose to prominence and won his 33rd title in 2015, surpassing the all-time record of 32 titles.

After winning two tournaments in a row in 2019, he became the 69th Yokozuna. He remained a steadfast yokozuna until his retirement in 2021.