The Japan Times: Monday, July 13, 2009
Kyodo News
The Tokyo High Court has granted approval for two Japanese-Filipino siblings born to a Japanese man and Filipino woman before World War II to register as Japanese citizens, accepting their claim that their parents were married.
The 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister had requested that they be registered in Japan, submitting an ex post facto certificate obtained in 2005 in the Philippines which recognized that their parents got married in 1920. Their parents did not have an official marriage certificate.
The high court made the decision Friday.
Presiding Judge Keiichi Hirabayashi, after going through a series of documents including the certificate from the Philippines, ruled that the father, who was from Nagasaki Prefecture, and the mother were legally married.
It is the first time a Japanese high court has confirmed the validity of a marriage certificate issued after the fact and given approval for citizenship, according to the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization.
The Tokyo Family Court had dismissed the request by the brother and sister to register as Japanese citizens on the grounds that their parents' marriage could not be confirmed by a document issued afterward, and the two had appealed to the high court.
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