Think you have VISA problems?
Try being a radioactive lizard, destroyer of skylines and serial crowd-disperser named Godzilla, who’s had to wait bloody ages to get his Japanese citizenship.
Thankfully, the government of Japan has finally seen sense, awarding the reptile his very own citizenship which means he can call himself a fully fledged resident of Shinjuku. They’d probably have given him a key to the city if he hadn’t constantly flattened it.
Translated from Japanese, the ceremonial certificate reads:
Name: Godzilla
Address: Shinjuku-ku, Kabuki-cho, 1-19-1
Date of birth: April 9, 1954 [the year of the release of the very first Godzilla film]
Date of becoming a Shinjuku resident: April 9, 2015
Reason for special residency: Promoting the entertainment of and watching over the Kabuki-cho neighbourhood and drawing visitors from around the globe in the form of the Godzilla head built atop the Shinjuku Toho Building.
Previous visits to Shinjuku Ward: 3 times; Godzilla (1984), Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah(1991), Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999)
Best of all, Godzilla has also been announced as a ‘tourism ambassador’ to represent the country on the international stage. Because how better to wow the Putins and Merkels of this world than with a giant lizard who can breathe fire from its mouth?
The beast might want to stay away from the US though. We sense he might still struggle at customs after a fateful incident with Matthew Broderick back in 1998.