DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS the procedure relating to the entry and residence of foreign nationals, on the one hand, and the procedure of acquisition of Japanese nationality under the Nationality Act, on the other, have the differing objectives of immigration control and the acquisition of Japanese nationality… they are different in nature(, and)… it is not necessary to establish a unified criteria for determinations of statelessness.”236 C.10. Mitigating factors, interventions and services C.10.a. Philippine Nikkeijin Legal Support Center (PNLSC) The PNLSC is a Japan-based non-profit organization established in 2003 with offices in Tokyo and Manila. It operates across the Philippines. The project started in 2003, at a commemoration of Japanese emigration to the Philippines in Davao when a group of lawyers learned of the history and decided to form an organization to provide legal assistance to descendants in the Philippines. There is one legal advisor in the Philippines, alongside the Secretary-General Norihiro Inomata, who has lived in the Philippines for 14 years, while the other 12 lawyers are in Japan. PNLSC has a counterpart called the Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai Rengokai (Federation of Japanese descendants organizations). The role of PNLSC is legal support to the Philippine Nikkeijin Rengokai and its 11 chapters. There have been 15 chapters all over the Philippines at one time or another, but currently there are only 11 that continue to function. Davao is the biggest association. There are seven associated project staff in seven of the 11 chapters. In the 1970s, these associations began as Japanese communitybased self-help organizations. The anti-Japanese sentiment that followed World War II had gradually subsided by the 1970s and slowly Japanese Nikkeijin who knew each other from the community began to come together. PNLSC-associated lawyers have also assisted Japanese war orphans in China (Persons of Japanese Descent in China), whose cases are now mostly resolved. The approach taken with war orphans in China was more successful because the governments of Japan and China worked together to create the list of persons of Japanese descent in China, and this served as adequate evidence for the Family Court to quickly process their cases. PNLSC notes that so far, about 1,400 war-displaced Japanese from China have acquired Japanese nationality, even though their relatives have not been identified as their family UNHCR, Typology of Stateless Persons in Japan, December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bb618b74. html (citing to, Fukushima Mizuho Sangiin Gin “Mukokuseki Mondainikansuru Shitsumon Shuisho” Nitaisuru 2014 (Heisei 26) Nen 6 Gatsu 20 Nichiduke Seifu Toubensho (Naikaku San Shitsu 186 Dai 127 Gou) [The Government Response on 20 June 2014 to the “Memorandum on Questions in the Diet concerning Statelessness Issues” Submitted by Mizuho Fukushima, Member of the House of Councillors (No.186-127, Questions in the House of Councillors, Cabinet)], at http://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/ joho1/kousei/syuisyo/186/touh/t186127.htm.). 236 78 UNHCR / April 2021