CORON, Philippines (Kyodo) -- The 82-year-old son of a Japanese migrant to the Philippines, who had lived his entire life there as a stateless person, has been recognized as a Japanese national by a court in Japan, an organization supporting such descendants affected by hardships during World War II and its aftermath said Friday.

Philippines-born Samuel Akahiji is one of some 50 surviving such people with Japanese roots who live in the Southeast Asian country and are seeking Japanese citizenship with support from the Tokyo-based organization.

The decision by a family court in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture to recognize Akahiji's Japanese citizenship was relayed to him by his three visiting Japanese cousins after they learned about it from the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center.

Akahiji was born to Isao "Kametaro" Akahiji, who migrated from Okinawa to the Philippines in 1928, and a Filipino mother in Coron in the western province of Palawan.

He had neither Japanese nor Philippine citizenship, with his birth registration unfound. His father was killed by Filipino guerrillas in April 1945 during the war.

"I'm happy," he said after hearing the news, while expressing gratitude to father and elation at being able to meet up with his relatives from Japan.

Akahiji's petition for the Japanese citizenship was filed at the court in April, about eight years after he formally sought the center's help to do so. He grew up hiding his Japanese identity and used his mother's surname amid the strong anti-Japanese sentiment in the Philippines after the war.

Because Akahiji's relatives in Okinawa changed their surname to Kamura after the war, his new name as a Japanese citizen was registered as Samuel Kamura.

Some 3,800 war-affected Japanese descendants in the Philippines have been documented by the center, though many of them have already died, including Akahiji's two siblings.