Currently, there is a serious gray area in the present legislation with regard to cases where the mother has children from a previous relationship with a non-Japanese national and these children do not have Japanese citizenship. For example, a Chinese woman with two children from a previous relationship with a Chinese partner who marries a Japanese man. She and her children could find themselves deported were she to divorce, if the children had not acquired Japanese nationality. At present, these kinds of cases are the most problematic and likely to increase in number as the Japanese economy becomes more globalized.
