The majority of resident aliens in Japan are Koreans and Taiwanese who were brought to Japan after their territories were annexed by Japan in the early twentieth century. Many of them were forced to come to Japan during the Second World War.(FN: 9) Often, it is these aliens who have attempted to invoke international human rights law before Japanese courts.

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In some cases, Koreans and Taiwanese residing in Japan have claimed that they still possessed Japanese nationality, arguing, inter alia, that customary international law allowed residents of a ceded territory to select nationality. Their arguments, however, have not found acceptance by the courts.

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(9) They were regarded as Japanese nationals until the end of the war because Korea and Taiwan had formed parts of Japan until then. On the defeat of Japan, Japan renounced all title to these areas and, as a consequence, both these individuals and their descendants lost their Japanese nationality and have been regarded as aliens ever since.