Many Filipinos in Japan permanent, long-term residents — DFA

MANILA, Philippines – Many Filipinos living in or near the quake- and tsunami-ravaged areas of Japan have taken up roots in that country either as permanent or long-term residents or as spouses and children of Japanese nationals, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday.

Several are engineers while some are nurses studying to take the license exams there, DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said, describing the profile of the typical Filipino in that part of northeastern Japan devastated by an 8.9 magnitude quake and the resulting tsunami.

“It seems we have a lot of permanent and long-term residents there. In Tokyo, the central and northern Japan, we have 84,407 permanent migrants. In Osaka, we have 19,972,” he told the Inquirer. The count does not include naturalized Japanese.

Malaya added that based on the records, many of these permanent residents were the spouses or children of Japanese citizens.

The DFA also gave a breakdown of Filipinos living in the four prefectures most heavily hit by the quake and tsunami: 1,309 in Miyagi, 2,366 in Fukushima, 906 in Iwate, and 551 in Aomori.

Malaya said the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, with a staff of at least 30 Filipinos and 22 locally hired personnel, was trying hard to reach out to the Filipino community in the northeastern sections despite difficulties in communication.

“We have four consul generals, and through them and the community leaders we hope to be able to verify the conditions of our nationals in the devastated areas,” he said.

Malaya said the DFA hot lines (834-4646 and 834-4580) had received a lot of calls from Filipinos inquiring about their relatives in Japan.

Under the setup, the names and details are recorded by DFA personnel and relayed to the Philippine embassy in Tokyo, he said. “Then the embassy will try to trace these individuals and verify their conditions.”

“It is my understanding that some of the callers have received feedback already from the embassy,” he said. (report from DJ Yap, Philippine Daily Inquirer)