Japan court denies citizenship to woman left in Philippines post-WWII

TOTTORI, Japan - A Japanese court upheld a lower court's rejection of a 95-year-old Japanese-Filipino woman's bid for Japanese nationality, more than eight decades after she was left behind in the Philippines after World War II, a Japan-based group supporting her and other descendants said Monday.

In a decision dated Sept. 9, the Hiroshima High Court's Matsue branch dismissed an appeal by Rosalina Kamba Fernandez, who visited Japan earlier this year on a government-funded trip as part of a broader effort to help descendants obtain citizenship more than 80 years after the end of the war.