22 November 2013 – The Philippine Consulate General in Osaka conducted a consular outreach mission on October 12 to 13 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture through the cooperation of the Filipino Organization in Kumamoto headed by its President, Ms. Adela C. Matsuda. The outreach was held at the Kumamoto International Center.

The Consulate processed a total of 299 applications for consular services with 284 ePassport applications and 15 notarial, authentication, Report of Birth, and other miscellaneous services during the consular outreach.

The Philippine Consulate in Osaka also conducted consultations with individual applicants regarding marriage, judicial recognition of divorce, civil registration, and other concerns on consular documents and procedures.

Kumamoto is home to about 1,300 Filipino nationals. It is approximately 10 hours from Osaka by car.  Kumamoto and the prefectures of Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Oita, Saga, Miyazaki and Kagoshima comprise the Kyushu area, the westernmost part of Japan which is host to around 9,000 Filipino nationals. 

The consular outreach held in Kumamoto is part of the Consulate General’s program to reach out and bring its consular services to approximately 80,000 Filipino nationals under its jurisdiction. Last year, it held five (5) consular outreach missions all over western Japan and served approximately 1,200 applicants. The Consulate has eight (8) consular outreach missions programmed for this year to serve over 2,400 applicants. Next year, the Consulate will conduct at least eight (8) mobile services for approximately 3,000 applicants. END