Second-generation descendants of Japanese nationals who were left behind in the Philippines and have remained stateless since World War II will visit Japan next month, with the Japanese government covering their travel expenses, their support group said Thursday.
The decision to shoulder the costs for Jose Takei, 82, and Leonora Uehara, 85, follows Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s earlier expression of willingness to assist them.
Ishiba met Takei and two other second-generation Japanese descendants during his visit to Manila in April. The average age of the surviving second-generation descendants is 83.
Takei will travel to Osaka Prefecture in western Japan to visit relatives traced by the Philippine Nikkeijin Legal Support Center and to pay respects at his family’s ancestral graves.
Uehara, meanwhile, will visit Okinawa in southwestern Japan to search for relatives, according to the center.
“Nikkeijin” refers to people of Japanese descent residing outside their ancestral homeland.
The visits are also expected to aid in the legal process for Takei and Uehara to acquire Japanese citizenship, which they lost amid the turmoil following World War II.
In a media interview after meeting Ishiba, Takei said his Japanese father had worked in the national railways before the war and later became a soldier when fighting broke out. His father returned to Japan before Takei was born in May 1943.
The support center also expressed hope that the Japanese government will extend the same financial assistance to other descendants in similar situations.
AloJapan.com