Foreign embassies and other diplomatic missions were arranging transportation and offering advice for non-Japanese people affected by the recent Kyushu earthquakes as local officials struggled to get a handle on their situation.
"We are trying to reach municipalities to find out the numbers of non-Japanese evacuees," said a spokesman in the international division of the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. "It is difficult at the moment, given the confusion."
Kumamoto City International Center, which has assigned multilingual translators to one shelter, said it is sheltering roughly 30 foreigners, most of whom are non-Japanese citizens who live locally. It added that the shelter is safe and has enough supplies for now.
Kumamoto-based Scottish manga artist Sean Michael Wilson, one of dozens of evacuees who sought shelter in a Kumamoto University building, said there are about 75 to 100 foreign evacuees there.
"About 25 percent of the people here are non-Japanese," Wilson wrote in an email.
Since Kumamoto Prefecture's ordeal began Thursday night, the Philippines Embassy and its consulate in Osaka, which oversees Kyushu, have been keeping in contact with the large Filipino community in the area. It has also dispatched staff to provide assistance.
"I'm very happy to know there are no casualties and no injured Filipinos," Philippine Ambassador Manuel Lopez told The Japan Times.
Lopez said a large number of Filipinos have gone to evacuation centers or have been sleeping in their cars.
He said one example of the predicament people face is that of four Filipino students enrolled in Kumamoto University reported being traumatized and wanted help getting to Fukuoka Prefecture.
Lopez said one of the students, who has been living in Japan with his wife and two children, wanted to return to the Philippines.
"I think (the student) was living near the epicenter ... and that's why he wants to go home," Lopez said.
Filipinos are not the only foreign citizens in need of help. An official at South Korea’s consulate in Fukuoka told The Japan Times that although no casualties or injuries were reported as of Monday among South Korean residents in both Kumamoto and Oita prefectures were those whose properties were severely damaged.
"We've been flooded by inquiries and requests for help," said Vice Consul Park Ki-jun. "We are doing our utmost to respond to all of the requests."
Park said around 1,000 South Koreans are residents of Kumamoto and about 2,000 live in Oita.
He said the consulate is most worried about Korean nationals in the hardest-hit Kumamoto Prefecture, "many of whom are afraid to stay in their own houses."
"We are searching for any possible ways to support them," Park said.
The South Korean government has dispatched a rescue team to Kyushu to assist the consulate in its work.
Among initiatives underway, Koreans are being offered help to get to Fukuoka Prefecture by chartered buses, from where they can catch flights Fukuoka Airport to South Korea. This is being done in cooperation with local authorities.
The embassy is keeping people informed about the options on its website and via social media. Park said that about six buses had already transported more than 300 South Koreans who wished to leave the area.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has been trying to aid foreigners in need of help. Since Friday, the transport ministry has been coordinating with the Nihon Bus Association and the Japan Federation of Hire-Taxi Associations to take foreigners in Kumamoto and Oita to Fukuoka Airport. Kumamoto Airport has been shut down since Saturday, while Oita Airport has reduced its flights.
"Most tourists have already left the evacuation centers," said a spokesman for the Oita Prefectural Government's regional development department.
He added that there is no clear tally for the number of non-Japanese residents in evacuation centers.
"There are many international students in Oita, including those attending Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University," he said, adding that the prefecture has no information on their whereabouts or status.
A staff member at the university president's office said there were no reports of casualties or injuries among foreign students as of Monday morning.
About 3,000 of the university's students are non-Japanese and come from 84 nations, mainly Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Although the impact of the earthquake was relatively small in Oita, the university has suspended classes through Wednesday.
The school was continuing to gather information about the situation of its foreign students, many of whom live in apartments and houses scattered around the city, the staffer said.
One of the university's former students, Bilam Karki of Nepal, called the situation in Kyushu "a terrible experience."
Karki was supporting victims of magnitude-7.8 earthquake that rocked Nepal in April 2015.
Following the quakes in Kumamoto, Karki spent two sleepless nights outdoors amid continuous aftershocks. Many of his friends have moved to evacuation centers.
"There was a small crack in my office building, fallen cupboards and a little trouble with the water supply," he said in an email.
"Today there are not many aftershocks, but . . . the fear factor is still alive among all the people here."
Justice Ministry figures from April showed that 10,767 non-Japanese were living in Kumamoto Prefecture and 10,573 in Oita.
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