On May 16, a 73-year-old Filipino-Japanese woman from the southern Philippine province of Davao met her Japanese relatives from Okinawa for the first time ever.

The meeting between Conchita Miyazato Basilan, a second-generation Japanese descendant in the Philippines, and four of her Japanese father's grandchildren living in Japan was facilitated by the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center, an organization that helps Japanese descendants trace their roots and recover their Japanese nationality.

According to Norihiro Inomata, secretary-general of the center, Basilan's father, Genichi Miyazato, arrived in the Philippines in 1929 and engaged in abaca (Manila hemp) farming in what is now called Digos City in Davao, on the island of Mindanao.