The Cabinet announced Friday that a law to allow new passports to be issued to citizens who lost their original ones in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will go into effect Wednesday.
The Special Passport Law, enacted at the Diet earlier this week, will provide those who report the loss of their passport with a new one free of charge. Applications will be accepted until March 31, 2013.
Issuing a five-year Japanese passport costs ¥11,000, of which ¥9,000 is collected by the government. This fee will be waived if applicants can prove they are victims of March 11 and lost their passports during the disaster.
It will be up to municipalities to decide whether to collect the remaining ¥2,000 service fee. Newly issued passports will have the same expiration date that was marked on the original passports. For those who had passports with an expiration date longer than five years, a second "special earthquake disaster passport" can be issued after five years.
More than 15,000 people were killed in the March 11 disaster that ravaged northeast Japan, and over 8,000 remain missing. About 100,000 evacuees are still reported to be living in temporary shelters across the nation.