Shigerui Ishiba. (Kyodo)
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan is arranging a meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and descendants of Japanese nationals left behind in the Philippines after World War II during a planned visit to the Southeast Asian country, government sources said Friday, in a show of support for such stateless people.
Ishiba is expected to meet several of the Japanese descendants in Manila to advance support for those seeking Japanese nationality during the 80th anniversary year of the war’s end.
The Japanese prime minister is considering traveling to the Philippines after visiting Vietnam in late April during Japan’s Golden Week holiday.
Many of the stateless residents are offspring of Japanese fathers who moved to the Philippines, married locals and were drafted by Japan’s military after the war broke out in the Pacific in 1941. The fathers died or were deported to Japan, with their children left behind.
Many had concealed their origins due to growing anti-Japanese sentiment following the war, with their numbers steadily dwindling due to old age.
According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, 134 stateless second-generation individuals remain in the Philippines, with about 50 hoping to establish a family register in Japan.
The Japanese government has surveyed their circumstances through support organizations.
In a parliamentary committee meeting in March, Ishiba expressed interest in using government funds to cover the costs for stateless individuals to travel to Japan to obtain nationality and search for relatives.
AloJapan.com