any of the three categories of citizenship,142 many of those who have made it here are understood to be in the state of de jure statelessness. War-separated Japanese Nationals Left in China and the Philippines The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines War-Separated Japanese Nationals Left in China as the following.143 “In 1945, many Japanese lived in settlement groups in the north-eastern part of China (former Manchu district). When the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 9, many died in the battlefield or from sickness or hunger during evacuation. During this time, some were left as orphans there and adopted by Chinese parents. We refer to these people as War-Separated Japanese Nationals Left in China.” According to Appendix 4 in the reference materials distributed at the Conference of the Advisory Committee on Support for War-Separated Japanese Left in China held on May 17, 2007,144 the number of War-Separated Japanese Left in China who returned to live in Japan with support from the government after Japan normalized diplomatic relations with China was 6,343 (20,239 including family members). The Law for the Support of War-Separated Japanese Left in China, which entered into force on April 6, 1994, has been one of various measures providing support, but the greatest problem for these people has been none other than the confirmation and proof of their identity. Identification is indispensable when confirming their nationality under the former Nationality Act and when filing petitions with family courts for permission to create a family registry.145 For these war-separated people in China, the most pressing problem 142 See, Amnesty International, The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied, AI Index: SA 16/005/2004. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA16/005/2004/en/a565434b-d5d5-11dd-bb24-1fb85fe8fa05/a sa160052004en.html. Six UN experts including Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio, in calling on Myanmar to address discrimination against members of Muslim minority in North Rakhine State on 2 April 2007, also stated that: “[u]nder the 1982 Citizenship Law, the members of the Muslim minority in North Rakhine State, generally known as the Rohingyas, have been denied Myanmar citizenship, which has seriously curtailed the full exercise of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and led to various discriminatory practices”. http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/F0ED9448671A73E6C12572B1. 143 http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido02/index.html. 144 http://www.mhlw.go.jp/shingi/2007/05/s0517-3d.html. 145 “Japanese nationality cannot be acquired by means of the permission to create a family registry from the family courts, but this permission cannot be granted to non-Japanese nationals, so permission to create a family registry focuses on determining whether the subject has a Japanese nationality. These are matters to be examined in the court's own authority, and should not be left to statements and evidence provided by the subject”. Kidana, supra note 3, pp.69-70. See also Prof. Okuda’s meticulous studies on jurisprudence on nationality and family registry in relation to war-separated Japanese nationals. Okuda, supra note 86, 53