Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, left, meets with second-generation descendants of Japanese nationals, including Jose Takei who were left behind in the Philippines in the 1940s, in Manila on April 29, 2025. (Kyodo)
MANILA (Kyodo) — Second-generation descendants of Japanese nationals, who were left behind in the Philippines and have been stateless since World War II, will visit Japan next month, with the Japanese government paying for their trips, their support group said Thursday.
The decision to shoulder the costs of the visits of Jose Takei, 82, and Leonora Uehara, 85, comes after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba earlier this year expressed his willingness to do so.
Ishiba met Takei and two other second-generation Japanese descendants when he visited 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 his relatives, whom the Philippine Nikkeijin Legal Support Center was able to trace, and visit his family’s ancestral graves. Uehara, meanwhile, will visit Okinawa in southwestern Japan, to search for relatives, the center said.
Nikkeijin refers to people of Japanese descent who reside outside their ancestral homeland.
The visits are expected to also help in the legal process for Takei and Uehara to acquire the Japanese citizenship they lost in the turmoil following World War II.
In a media interview immediately after meeting Ishiba, Takei said his Japanese father had worked in the national railways before the war and then became a soldier when fighting broke out. But his father returned to Japan before Takei was born in May 1943.
The support center also hopes the Japanese government will provide the same financial assistance to descendants other than Takei and Uehara.
AloJapan.com