It's not impossible for a foreigner to become a Chinese citizen but for most people it's not particularly attractive because you have to renounce your original citizenship. Since the passport isn't particularly strong at the moment that would mean you most likely need to go through an annoying visa process just to visit your home country.

>Japan at least has a pathway to citizenship for foreigners

pretty sure that is not true, unless you are of japanese descent. you can get permanent residency but not citizenship

There is a pathway to citizenship. It requires over 5 years of residency and relinquishing other citizenships (among other conditions).

Many myths around obtaining Japanese citizenship persist online. This site offers some good rebuttals.

https://www.turning-japanese.info/p/misinfo.html?m=1

About ten years?

The Minister of Justice may permit the naturalization of an alien notwithstanding that the alien does not fulfill the condition set forth in item (1) of paragraph 1 of the last preceding Article, provided that the said alien falls under any one of the following items, and is presently domiciled in Japan: (1) One who has had a domicile or residence in Japan for three consecutive years or more and who is the child of a person who was a Japanese national (excluding a child by adoption); (2) One who was born in Japan and who has had a domicile or residence in Japan for three consecutive years or more, or whose father or mother (excluding father and mother by adoption) was born in Japan; (3) One who has had a residence in Japan for ten consecutive years or more.

http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html

the fact that it is technically possible does not mean that it is a common occurence

There was a longtime member of of the Diet of Japan who was born in Finland and is of pure Finnish ancestry. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1979.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marutei_Tsurunen

Seriously, where do you people even come up with this bullshit? Where do you summon the confidence to state these easily disproven falsehoods about a country that you don't have the slightest clue about?

ok, so it happened to 1 guy, and it was such a novel thing that you happen to know about it because its an interesting factoid. it's not common. realistically it's impossible for most people. I know someone who is white, born in japan, has lived there for 40+ years, native japanese speaker and she does not have citizenship.

my wife and extended family are japanese. she is actually half japanese, so i get a special view of all the weird racism embedded into their society. she even has citzenship as well as my kids, but she still is not treated as japanese because of her appearance.

That's just false. Becoming a Japanese citizen isn't harder than being a permanent resident and in some cases it's easier (https://www.turning-japanese.info/2010/07/faq-which-is-more-...). The most common thing is that people don't want to become Japanese citizens because it requires giving up their native citizenship and the benefits of permanent residency is basically equivalent to that of citizenship (other than voting).

>ok, so it happened to 1 guy

No, it happens to a bunch of people, I just chose the guy who has a Wikipedia article so you can't claim I'm fabricating an anecdote.

>she does not have citizenship

That tells us nothing. Has she tried applying for citizenship and was rejected or does she just not want it? The approval rate for naturalization requests is upwards of 95%, by the way, above that of the United States even.

You have a Japanese wife? That's nice. I'm actually Japanese and live in Japan. I think I have some authority on this topic as well.

the point is my wife is half, born in japan with citizenship, and as a result gets exposed to all kinds of edge cases that you yourself wouldnt experience or be aware of. the xenophobic tendencies of japan are well known, its disingenuous to downplay them. stuff like Atsugiri Jason is basically a minstrel show. a white guy with japanese citizenship will never get the same treatment as someone "actually japanese" like you. personally that doesnt bother me at all, im aware that im not japanese, but it sucks seeing my wife treated differently because she doesnt look full japanese.