By April 3, 2009, notification of nationality acquisition was filed by 252 persons under the amended Nationality Act and the certificate of nationality acquisition was issued to 116 persons96. Children Whose Parents are Unknown Article 2(3) serves as an important means to prevent statelessness. “A child shall ... be a Japanese national when both parents are unknown ... in a case where the child is born in Japan.”97 The interpretation of this provision received attention in the “Baby Andrew” case. Andrew was born in 1991 at a hospital in Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture. The mother disappeared five days after his birth. He was initially issued an alien registration card as a Philippine national, but the Philippine Embassy rejected this nationality, and he therefore was re-registered as stateless. From the fact that he was born in Japan to unknown parents, the case was taken to court to confirm his Japanese nationality under Article 2 (3) of the Nationality Act. The main issue at trial was whether the “parents are unknown” provision applied to his case, and the burden of proof. The District Court and the High Court produced contradicting conclusions, but the Supreme Court recognized Andrew’s Japanese nationality in 1995:98 The Act … provides that a child who was born in Japan shall be a Japanese national when both father and mother are unknown or have no nationality (Article 2(iii)). If the principle that the nationality of a child shall depend on the parents’ nationality is to be maintained, a child whose father and mother are unknown will be stateless. Therefore, in order to prevent the occurrence of stateless persons, the … Act recognizes the acquisition of Japanese nationality by a child in such a situation. Therefore, “when both father and mother are unknown” in Article 2(iii) means when both father and mother 96 www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji174.html. The dominant view in Japan is that in the application of the Nationality Act, being on Japanese territory includes onboard a Japanese ship sailing the high seas and aboard a Japanese airline flying over international waters. The United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (Article 3) does not limit the place of birth to the high seas or open skies. However, if the child is born when flying over a territory or sailing in territorial waters of a certain state, s/he will have two countries of birth. “As a non-signatory of this convention, we cannot adopt this interpretation for the Japanese Nationality Act”. Kidana supra note 3, pp.201. 98 Judgment of the Supreme Court (Second Petty Bench January 27, 1995). 97 39