The Japanese Consulate General in New York has been flooded with inquiries about missing Japanese in addition to the 24 already declared missing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, officials said Monday.
The consulate has yet to confirm the status of several dozen Japanese nationals, the officials said. However, the Foreign Ministry noted that an inquiry does not necessarily indicate those who are unaccounted for were caught up in the terrorist attacks.
Some Japanese live in the U.S. without registering their residence with the consulate and others cannot be contacted for other reasons, the ministry said.
The consulate is still looking into many of the inquiries and believes some of the missing may have been working for foreign companies and could have been at the World Trade Center on business. It is still attempting to identify Japanese nationals working at foreign companies.