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International Migration, Citizenship, Identities and Cultures

Japanese-Filipino Children (JFC) in the Philippines

Carmelita G. Nuqui, Development Action for Women Network (DAWN), Rm. 514 Don Santiago Bldg., 1344 Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila 1000, The Philippines.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recognizes every child's right to a name and to acquire nationality. However, these rights are elusive in the case of some Japanese-Filipino Children (JFC).

The number of interracial marriages and unions in Japan is growing because of the internal conditions in Japan and as a result of globalization. The influx of Filipino women entertainers in Japan during the 1980s, which continues up to the present, resulted in the birth of about 200,000 JFC.

Initial findings from the data of the Development Action for Women Network, a Philippine NGO, show that the JFC in the Philippines would want to meet their fathers. They wish to finish their studies and want their fathers to support their education. Some want to claim their Japanese nationality. Most mothers want their children to be recognized as Japanese because they see this as a passport to go to Japan and be able to work there again.

Under Japanese law, nationality is given to children of mixed marriages and to illegitimate children only when recognition of the child by the Japanese father comes before the birth of the child.

The JFC and their mothers are fighting for the children's claim to their Japanese nationality. But is Japan ready to embrace into their fold children of mixed marriages?

Gender, Technology and Development, Vol. 12, No. 3, 483-507 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/097185240901200310


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