The appointment of KBRI Tokyo as one of the Indonesian diplomatic offices with authorities to issue e-passports has helped improve the quality of passport service for Indonesian applicants in Japan.
According to Deputy Chief of Mission at KBRI Tokyo Maria Renata Hutagalung, the availability of an e-passport service at the embassy has long been awaited by Indonesian citizens in Japan.
KBRI Tokyo is recorded as the seventh Indonesian diplomatic office allowed to issue e-passports for Indonesians living abroad.
Six others include KBRI Singapore, KBRI Seoul (Republic of Korea), KBRI Den Haag (The Hague/Netherlands), KBRI Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), KBRI Berlin (Germany), and Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Los Angeles (the US).
Meanwhile, Immigration Director General at the Law and Human Rights Ministry Silmy Karim was quoted as saying that expanding e-passport services would strengthen the position of Indonesian passport holders.
He remarked that e-passports can increase the security of their holders' personal data and make the immigration processes easier in countries that also apply the same systems.
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He stated that since January 2024, all immigration offices in Indonesia have fully issued e-passports for applicants, adding that his ministry then expanded the e-passport services at several Indonesian diplomatic offices.
He explained that with the availability of e-passport service in KBRI Tokyo, Indonesian citizens in Japan need not return to Indonesia solely to obtain the e-passports as they can have had them in Tokyo.
According to the embassy's press statement, on the day KBRI Tokyo commenced its e-passport service, Karim handed over an e-passport to a 10-year-old girl named Oulaya Nur Shofia, who lives in Japan.
KBRI Tokyo reported that in 2023, it had issued 9,041 passports for Indonesians residing in Japan, while the total number of Indonesians living in the country was recorded at 149,101.
Some 110,103 of the 149,101 Indonesians in Japan reside in the embassy's administrative areas that cover 30 prefectures in the regions of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Chubu, Kanto, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
The embassy recorded a significant increase in the number of Indonesian passport applicants in 2024, from around 1,400 to 1,600 applicants monthly.
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Translator: Juwita TR, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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