Help needed for Japanese-Thai boy to locate father

Kasit instructed the ministry's Passport office in Pichit province to meet the nine-year-old boy to find out as much information of his father as possible and the information will be sent to the Thai embassy and consular office in Japan to help locate the boy's father.

The boy was earlier found carrying a photo of a Japanese man in front of Thaluang Temple in Phichit. The boy, identified as Keigo Sato, claimed the picture belonged to his Japanese father, Katsumi.

Tharit said the Foreign Ministry also sought help from the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok to find out more about the boy's father.

The boy has been taken into custody by the Phichit's Social Development and Human Security Office.

Suppasit Khumpraphan, director of the Children's Rights Protection Foundation, said the officials could coordinate with his foundation to seek help from children's rights non-government organisations in Japan to help locate the boy's father.

The boy's information could also be sent to Readers' Digest magazine, which has a project to help children locate their families.

Suppasit said he worried that the father might not be willing to take responsibility over the boy or else the father could have tried to locate his son much earlier.

Phichit Governor Somchai Hathayatanti visited the boy Tuesday and gave him Bt5,000 and promised to coordinate with the Thai embassy in Japan and the Immigration Bureau to locate his father.