SFA-AGR-098a-08

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY IN TOKYO HOLDS CONSULAR FORUM

WITH FILIPINO COMMUNITY

27 February 2008 - The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo organized a consular forum with the Filipino Community on 23 February 2008 at the Embassy Multipurpose Hall.

The Forum, attended by almost 100 members from the community representing over 20 church groups and NGOs from the surrounding prefectures, focused on the various consular concerns of Filipinos in Japan.  These concerns include the new Japanese immigration rules and procedures, rules on divorces and marriages, domestic violence, inter-country adoptions, and human trafficking.

In his opening remarks on behalf of Ambassador Domingo L. Siazon, Jr., Charge d’Affaires, a.i., and Consul General Sulpicio Confiado explained that the Forum, which is the first of a series of regular dialogues with the community, is part of the Embassy’s efforts to reach out to the 221,817 Filipinos living and working in Japan (Source: Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice of Japan, 2007).  Of that number, more than 25,000 are undocumented.  To date, Filipinos rank as the fourth largest group of foreign nationals in Japan after the Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians. 

Consul General Confiado emphasized that it was important to raise the awareness of Filipinos not only of the relevant rules and procedures but also of their rights and benefits in Japan.  The Forum also serves as a venue for members of the FilCom to communicate to the Embassy their problems and other issues.  Consul General Confiado said, “This Forum will definitely be a learning experience for both the Embassy and the Community.”

The Forum opened with a plenary session, which included a presentation on consular matters by Consul General Confiado and Vice-Consul Christian de Jesus.  There was also a short briefing on the machine readable passport initiative of the government.  The plenary later broke up into smaller groups for a working lunch and a discussion session led by other Embassy officials and personnel.

Response to the Forum has been positive.  Many of the participants said they looked forward to the succeeding dialogues with the Embassy, in addition to its initiative to increase the number of consular outreach missions to surrounding areas outside Tokyo. END

/wingret