Nikkeijin Papers For Sale! Do You Want To Buy?!!!

There are lots of Nikkeijins here in the Philippines specially in the areas where the Japanese Imperial Armies habitated during the war. One notable place where I was able to meet a lot of "Nikkeijins" are in Davao.

When I accompanied a friend in Davao when they ventured into Nikkeijin processing to check the documentations of these Nikkeijins, I was astonished to find out that there are a lot of "Nikkeijins" in Davao than probably anywhere else in the Philippines.

They are literally thousands; from the Second Generations to the 6th Generations! That is what they claim. I was able to talk to a lot of them and conducted interviews to ascertain the validity of their claims. There are several things that I found out;

1. Some of the "Original Nikkeijins" who are mostly farmers from the rural places of the Davao Oriental and Davao Del Sur have sold their documents to a group of persons who have the money to pay for the processing. The amount involved sometimes just ranges from Php 50,000 to P150,000. They had no choice since they are really quite "illiterate" and they won't be able to take care of the process themselves.

2. Some of the "Original Nikkeijins" were victimized by unscrupulous brokers who have collected all their original documents which would serve as proof of their descendancy. These brokers have either collected their land titles as collaterals with the promise that they would get them back once they are already in Japan.

3. Since the 70's, "selling of Kosekitohon" or other documental proofs have been ongoing in Davao. I was also surprised to learn that most of the "Nikkeijins" I have talked to and met were "FAKES!"

With my experiences in the Philippine Army before I went out, my notable specialties are psychological profiling, interrogation and interviews. Some of the "Nikkeijins" I talked to have admitted through a series of interviews that they are indeed fakes. They were just sold certain names and birth certificates by another "Nikkeijin" for a fee. The fees vary though they could go as low as Php 10,000 to Php 300,000 depending on the status of the person(s) the documents are being sold to. Who sold them these documents? Another "fake nikkeijin" posing as an original.

Some of these people have prominent positions in the local government units in Davao; Among them are (just to mention a few); an elementary principal who opted to have another birth certificate, marriage certificate with another name and applied for the NBI clearance, they even have a "fake group marriage celebration" which is of course funded by the money that they paid the "fake family;" there is this personnel from the local civil registrar from a rural area in Davao Oriental who decided to venture into this "Nikkeijin" opportunity who also paid and invited others to join the venture; there is this wife of a known College Professor, who sold most of their lands without her husband knowing it and assumed another name from "Remedios" to "Maria" just to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to go to Japan as Nikkeijins. However, due to the nature of their transactions, they were all denied by the Japanese Embassy in Manila. There are several similar stories of this kind personally narrated to me when I was in Davao.

This is happening because some were able to get away with it. Some of the "Fake Nikkeijins" already have stable jobs in Japan with Permanent Resident statuses and have already embraced their "fake identities." Some of them are even prominent people in that area in Davao and the people around them have just kept silent about it. Some of them have been in Japan as "real nikkeijins" at the expense of the "original nikkeijins" who are still tending to their farms somewhere in Davao who have resigned their luck to fate that they won't be able to go to Japan.

I was also able to talk to an original Nikkeijin family in Tagum, their surname is Konishi. They are a family of peasant farmers who are really descendants of the Japanese named Konishi. It was undeniable because the living daughter of the Japanese really looks like him. They had proofs of their descendancy but the problems are most of the brokers that they talked to just swindled them. Some took their passports, some made fun of their Birth Certificates through corrections and alterations, some asked for money and some even gave them loans which up to now they were not able to pay, some even sold their family documents to interested "fake nikkeijins." I just don't know if any of these fakes were already able to land a spot in Japan.

Their case is very simple if someone would just have the big heart to really help their plight. The daughter of the Japanese who is now on her late 70's just have to be invited to Japan and process her documentation with the Ministry of Justice. I am really very much interested to help them but when I checked their documents. Most of their documents were "manipulated" by the brokers and/or foundations that used to process them. For one, I was even able to talk to "Tony," a third generation descendant who is a fireman. He even gathered too much loan from the foundation that processed them for the documentations and processing of their descendancy. When he was interviewed in Manila with his mother (2nd Generation Nikkeijin), the foundation helping them turned their backs on them when the interview results were negative. They were stranded in Manila for a couple of weeks. They didn't have the plane ticket to get back to Davao. Knowing their plight, I helped them return to their home and for Tony to resume his work with the local fire department in Tagum. I never heard of them after that time.

It seems that there are several crimes being committed by people just to be able to go to Japan at the expense of innocent and ignorant victims. Among them are; falsification of public documents - fake "on-time(ly) registered" birth certificates, marriage certificates, baptismal certificates, DepEd records, postal IDs, NBI clearances and etc.

"I pity the plight of those original Japanese descendants who have no way of fighting back with the sad plight that they encountered. I just wish that there would be measures to correct the upsurge of "Fake Nikkeijins" usurping the identities of those poor original Japanese descendants."