The public management ministry asked the Foreign Ministry on Friday to take measures to ensure the safety of Japanese living overseas in nations without Japanese embassies or consulates, ministry officials said.
Public management chief Toranosuke Katayama made the request to Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka.
The public management ministry is in charge of evaluating ministries and agencies with the aim of improving operations.
As of March 31, Japan had diplomatic establishments in 188 nations, but 71 of them are under the control of embassies or consulates located in neighboring nations.
The public management ministry is concerned about delays in evacuating Japanese nationals from countries without embassies or consulates. It asked the Foreign Ministry to be aware of security information about these nations and secure means of evacuation.
Katayama said the Foreign Ministry should entrust local security experts with gathering information or dispatch more diplomatic personnel to nations that Japan has difficulty keeping a close eye on.
Katayama also asked Tanaka to establish a communications network by appointing some Japanese residents as "footholds" so they can convey information from diplomatic establishments via radio to other Japanese nationals in these nations, the officials said.
The current communications network does not appear to be working well, according to a survey on 30 randomly selected embassies and consulates.
Six diplomatic establishments did not know where to contact Japanese nationals at night or on holidays, as only their workplaces were registered.
Fourteen diplomatic establishments said they did not have regular contact with Japanese residents, according to the public management ministry.