Embassy of Japan denies lifting visa requirement for Filipinos
The Embassy of Japan in the Philippines strongly denied that it is lifting the visa requirement for Filipinos traveling to Japan, belying news reports that came out the past two weeks.
“The Embassy of Japan in the Philippines would like to clarify to the public that Japan has not lifted the visa requirements for nationals of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam,” a statement posted on its website Sunday afternoon said.
Nevertheless, the embassy noted that their country “has opened multiple-entry Visas to nationals of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.”
Two weeks ago, Tokyo-based Kyodo News Agency reported that the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to waive the visa requirement for citizens of the aforementioned Southeast Asian countries this coming June.
Citing unnamed sources within the Japan Tourism Agency, Kyodo News explained that this will be done to attract more international tourists especially in the run up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, which the country is hosting.
“The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also looking to tourism as a pillar of its strategy to spur the country’s economic growth,” the report added.
Last week, the United States Embassy reiterated that it is not implementing any changes in its visa policy for Filipinos. This is in response to a post in the satirical blog Adobo Chronicles which said that Philippine citizens can already travel to America without applying for a visa.
Please “like” The Filipino Scribe on Facebook!
About Author
This is false… no such press release exists on the official website
http://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/pressandspeech/press/pressreleases/2014/index.htm
You obviously didn’t check the embedded link in my post.
For your convenience, check this ->
http://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/pressandspeech/press/exempt_false.html
I did check the Embassy Website… there is no such press release. All press releases in 2014 have the following at the top:
2014 PRESS RELEASE
JAPAN INFORMATION AND CULTURE CENTER (JICC)
EMBASSY OF JAPAN
2627 Roxas Boulevard, 1300 Pasay City, Philippines
Phone: 551-5710 Ext. 2314/2316 Fax: 551-5784
E-mail: press@ma.mofa.go.jp
This one does not. Also, notice how on the official website, the links near the top of the page:
Home – Press Releases and Speeches – Press Releases – 2014
The link from this article only has the “home” link
Also, at the bottom of the page on your link, it says “copyright 2013” where on the official website it says 2014 on all press releases from this year.
Also the URL name is not consistent with the other press releases… the ending of each URL on the official website contains the date “/2014/40.html” whereas yours is “exempt_false.html”
Also, “Vietnam” is one word and never spelled “Viet Nam”…
You cannot dispute the legitimacy of the press release I cited here. It’s from the website. If you don’t consider this is a press release because of the technicalities you cited, I suggest you call the Japanese embassy to verify it for yourself.
“Copyright 2013” may be indicated at the bottom of the page but the content of the material pertains to recent news reports (I cited in the post Kyodo News Agency).
On your final point: Viet Nam is an acceptable spelling of that country. Do some research.
Just Google the Embassy website and look as hard as you can for this press release… it’s not there. These “technicalities” I cited have to make you question the legitimacy of the link. I’m not even saying that the waiver of Philippine visas in June is true. I’m still waiting to see a report like that on the embassy website but again… a link to this article is NOWHERE to be found on the embassy website. Check for yourself.
So what do you call the link I gave to you? I’m standing by the accuracy of my post unless you can show otherwise. Anyway, you seem to be so concerned by this.
Also, let me ask you this: What legitimate source reported that the visa requirement will be lifted? All local news orgs relied on the report of Kyodo News Agency which is based on an ANONYMOUS SOURCE.
Now, if I am going to Japan, I’d rather err on the side of caution and assume that the visa requirement is still in place.
It’s not hard to fake a link… But listen I urge you to check the actual website. Start from the home page and try to find the link yourself. I don’t know where you got this link from. I checked Kyodo News Agency and I only found their original article stating that visas will be waived in June. I never saw another article retracting that statement. Please show me where you got the link. If it actually is on the official embassy website, they sure as hell make it impossible for the public to find. Can you show me the page on the embassy website that displays the link to this post? Please go to the website and verify it yourself before you post such an article. Yes I’m concerned about it because I have many Filipino friends who are looking forward to coming here to Japan. When the “news” was released last week that America waived Philippine visas, I was equally skeptical and was the first to point out that it was a hoax. As I said before, I’m not 100% convinced that the Japan waiver of Philippine visas is legit but this post isn’t convincing at all. I challenge you again to start from the home page of the embassy website and find this article yourself.
So you are saying that the news release that I used here is not legitimate? That’s a big accusation.
Call their embassy now and find the truth yourself.
i agree with jesse just call the japan embassy i’ve been there the first time i heard the news. unfortunately, what you are fighting for is not true. good luck to your debate.
Have you called the embassy yourself? Of course they are closed right now. I’m saying what’s posted in the article doesn’t look legitimate. The burden of proof is on you to verify your sources and check for yourself before posting this article as fact. All you have to do is check the website for yourself. I’m trying to verify but I see nothing yet. I’m telling you check the website and post a picture of the page that displays this link. Tell me where did you get this info from. Please send me the link.
I checked out sources in Japan to see if this was real or fake… My Facebook post is below…
For all of you that believe everything posted on Facebook, without checking sources first. There is another similar rumor about USA Visa’s for Philippine people as well, that is also FAKE.
<>
Ok, thought rather than all these rumours going around and misconceptions and what ever else, it would be better I just called to Immigration and found out the truth myself…
So, 3 phone numbers later and after being shifted back and forth between many people until I finally got the head of visa foreign affairs at the Tokyo Regional Immigration office on the phone… I was told that this same request from the Philippine government has been made almost every single year to the Japanese Immigration governmental office and that is why the Embassy always re-posts that same notice to their website over and over many times. Again, this year, the same request has been made and I was told that most likely it will be turned down, the same as last year and years prior. I was also told that if it was going to be considered accepted, then Immigration would post the news on the front page of their web site long before any news was released to the public to avoid any confusion or any unnecessary phone calls, like the one I just made. lol Also, June is not the date it would be changed, even if accepted, it could be up to a year before they would actually implement it into their system.
So yes, they did apply the same as they do every year, this is true… but the fact that Japan has given the Philippine people a Visa lift, this is totally false. 99%?, more like 10% chance that this will actually happen, according to the official I spoke with.
Also, this link on the site is old… It is from 2013 but the reason they did not use a date in the link, is because the link has been updated many times with spelling revisions and other small changes. The link is still active and still in use by the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines because this same rumour floats around every year.. You can check the archive below to see how many times its been updated and used… this news refers to the latest news and last years news as well. This news does full circle every year actually.
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/pressandspeech/press/exempt_false.html
Here is a link you can all check that will have information posted if the Visa lift ever happens.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/short/novisa.html
I hope this helps because as you can see, both of you have the wrong information about this gossip going around the internet. 😉
Anyway, I do hope that a Visa lift is given , but I highly doubt it will happen this year.
Wow, Matthew. Thanks for doing all these hard work. Anyway, as I said, it’s better to err on the side of caution if you are travelling to Japan so it’s prudent to assume that the visa requirement still stands.
No problem,
I actually had a 7 hour debate on Facebook about this rumour so rather than spend another wasted minute arguing with someone, I figured the easiest way to find out the truth was to just call around until I spoke to the right person in charge. No disrespect but a visiting ambassador from any country has zero pull in these kinds of matters, especially from the Philippines. As most of us all know, the Japanese government is totally racist towards other Asian countries and actually even for me, an American, its not easy to get around the Japanese Visa system. I have been here for 15 years and sponsor my own visa through my Japanese company and it’s been like jumping through hoops every year, just to end up with a one year visa.
I pray this helps people, because it is kind of annoying to have the wrong information about this gossip going around the internet. 😉
Anyway, I do hope that a Visa lift is given , but I highly doubt it will happen this year.
Oh, forgot to mention… “a statement posted on its website Sunday afternoon said.” << This should be changed because that page was posted AUGUST 1, 2013 (00:22:33). This does not mean it is old news… I was told they are just recycling it and it pertains to the current rumours going around the web that are actually the same rumours from last year. I have 32 web sites myself and I can tell you, that it is easier to just recycle a page, than make a new one. Anyway, hope this also clears things up for everyone.
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my website thus i came to “return the favorâ€.I am trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!|