Travel Without Passports?

Hi, I have in-laws living in Japan who lost there home because of the earthquake/tsunami/radiation. My wife and daughter are there with them and they both have there passports (my daughter is a U.S. citizen, my wife is Japanese but has a valid passport) and I was wondering if anyone had heard if the U.S. or Japan is allowing citizens to leave the country for the standard 90 vacation visa without a passport. I would tell them to get theres and do the expedited service but that would still take at least a week or a lot longer because of the constant threat of aftershocks and radiation.

Sorry for all the back story there, my general question is just if anyone has heard anything and if so maybe a link can be posted for more info. I have checked the U.S. Embassys website and have seen nothing of help about it.

Pray that saftey will return to Nippon!

Hi Dave,

I have been searching on the web to see if there is any stories or cases about people being able to leave without a passport. Unfortunately no such luck and the United States is most likely going to require them to have a passport to enter the country. I honestly advise having your family go to the Embassy in Tokyo if they are near there or in Osaka. They appear to reopen March 19. But I did find an emergency contact info for the embassy of Japan in the U.S. # 202-238-6700. If you give them a call I pray they will be able to advise you and your family as what needs to be done.

If I find anything else I will post it!

Thanks a ton for the good info there micky, I really apprecite it! I'm at my wit's end trying to figure something out. Oh, the embassy in Tokyo should be opening up back on the 19th? That actually works out well since it might take them that long to get there with the gas shortages from people hording! God it ticks me off. Sorry, anyways thanks again! I'll try that number once it gets a little later in the morning over here.

A bit tricky.

I don't know if this is of any help but
here's my 'passport experience' on the other day:

I have travelled around the world, have never engaged in any illegal activities, do not walk alone at night - avoid trouble and look like a normal mature woman travelling by herself (maybe a woman travelling alone is a poblem here???).

Apparently, THIS may be a problem here - it is the first time ever that I have been stopped by the police while walking peacefully in the street shopping for food and looking at the interesting food options... all of a sudden, a couple of police officers who spoke no English at all, stopped me and were quite harsh in demanding my passport without explaining the purpose (they approach me in a direct way). They knew I cannot understand their commands.

This has never happened to me in any other country - I am not a suspicious or dodgy looking person (;-) and I felt quite embarassed and humiliated as this happened in a busy street with a lot of people glancing and even staring. Luckily, I had my passport with me (with my my very legal travel visa etc) however they still were trying to talk to me in Japanese and kept on cheakcing every page in the passport... this took quite a while.

It was a little humiliating as I have done nothing wrong and came here to travel, but do not abandant the country after the disaster, rather, decided to have a more flexible and limited travel (far from affected ares, obviously) while showing my little moral and emotional support and my little imput may also assist Japan's economy.

But this incident has made me feel very unwelcome, especially as they did not do the check in a gentle, sensitive manner (for whatever reason they do it), but, rather, in a harsh, unpleasant manner and treated me with a lot of suspicious. Do they think that all gaijin are criminals? If they only check the legalty of the visas, well, this can be done in a more respectrul way (as I showed my passport and visa immediately, it is the way they kept on passing my passport from hand to hand, bending it, continuing some harsh statments, checking it again and again....until handling it back)

I would not want to be in this situation if my passport has been lost or stolen as it would have been much more unpleasant. I really hope that all of you guys manage to sort the passports out, and that you are safe and well (those close to the disaster zone). I also hope that nobody else happen to experience a similar situation and that is the exception rather the norm.

Left a bitter taste and I wonder if we, the responsible visitors are simply not welcome anymore???

Good luck with your travel, I hope you are all safe.

I totally understand you being at your wits end with your family out there and wanting them out of the country. March 19, 20, 21st for American citizens the Tokyo Embassy is open-- for emergency passports only, it seems for American citizens only and the hours vary. I'm unsure what would be more beneficial for your Japanese in-laws. It might be better for them to speak to their own consulate in Tokyo what their options would be and I imagine the wait could be very long but that's speculation. The number I gave you is for Japan's U.S. embassy in Washington. I tried to see if there were any other contact numbers but again I don't see anything. Let me know if they were able to advise you on the best course of action!

the embassy issues emergency passports the same day, or you return there no later than the next day for pickup.

so they should be fine to go in to apply as soon as possible when the embassy opens again.

Thank you again everyone. I think we will try the emergency passport. I will for sure be bringing my wife and child here but I don't know about my in-laws unless we can get the passports for them. My wife is very worried about the U.S. Immigration officers. That they might see our child (a U.S. Citizen) and her a Japanese citizen and think she's trying to get here for a vacation and stay after her 90 day limit. I told her to just explain that her house was damaged in the earthquake/tsunami. That she will be visiting with her husband (me) and is going there for our daughters saftey. I don't think they will have any issue with this but she is still very concerned. I've tried the diffrent goverment websites but can get no answers on what she should say or do to make sure everything goes smooth and that she'll be alright comeing here. Once again any information would be Greatly apprecited. I am going to buy her a round trip ticket so they will see her set return date to Japan and make it look more likely that she will indeed be heading back the Japan so there won't be any problems. God the stress is killing me! I just want to hurry and get them over here now!

Sorry, thanks again everyone for your help and info =)

Perhaps I misunderstood your question but it's your Japanese in-laws who need passports, right? There's no point sending them to the the US embassy; they don't issue Japanese passports.

Some passport offices in Japan, like the one in Sendai, are open for business this weekend.

Yes that is right my Japanese in-laws are the ones that need passports so they will go to Sendai to try and get emergency ones.