[Between Islands] Mender of frayed threads: 70 years of women at the heart of PH–Japan ties

2026-03-14 - 02:04

The clink of silver against porcelain at Circles in Shangri-La Makati felt worlds away from the quiet of my office in Tokyo’s Ark Hills. Across from me, Marianne “Chiquette” Dalumpines Tanizaki stirred her black coffee. She looked like any other grandmother enjoying a quiet morning in Manila — small, soft-spoken, almost easy to overlook. But when she began talking about her “cases” — the battered mother and child she picked up at 2 am in Yokohama, the bilog (undocumented worker) she took in when he had nowhere else to go, and the entrepreneur sued in a Japanese court whom she assisted — I realized she was not just any grandmother, but someone who quietly devotes her life to helping Filipinos in trouble in Japan. Marianne “Chiquette” Dalumpines Tanizaki (left) with Between Islands author Ricky Sabornay over breakfast at Circles, Shangri-La, Makati, where their conversation about her decades of service to Filipinos in Japan inspired this column. As I listened to her stories in that familiar Ilongga lilt, I was reminded of Marilou sensei, the first Filipina who looked out for me when I arrived in Shizuoka. Marilou sensei brought me along to her English classes, helped me land my first arubaito (part-time job), and taught me how to survive in a place where everything was new. By day, she taught at the local university; by night and on weekends, she slipped into police stations and courtrooms as a Tagalog interpreter, helping Filipinos who had run out of luck, language, and options. Women like her and Chiquette laid the groundwork for people like us. Long before NGOs and formal support networks existed, there were women like Marilou sensei and Chiquette. They stepped in when no one else could, making sure our kababayans (countrymen) did not disappear into the cracks of the Japanese justice system. Listening to Chiquette that morning, I realized she was carrying forward the same quiet thread of service that women like Marilou sensei had been weaving for decades. A life of service Chiquette is turning 72 this year. Her life has essentially mirrored the long, slow healing between our two countries. Marianne “Chiquette” Dalumpines Tanizaki in 1998, during her early years of assisting Filipinos navigating life and legal challenges in Japan. Photo courtesy of Ms. Tanizaki Her lifelong commitment to service began as a young volunteer at the La Ignaciana Apostolic Center, a Jesuit spiritual and social center in Manila. Later she founded the PagAalay ng Puso Foundation, Inc. (PPFI), through which she continues her sociocivic work for underserved communities in the Philippines. When she arrived in Japan in the late 80s, she joined a wide range of NGOs dedicated to migrant workers’ rights and to movements against domestic violence before eventually serving as executive director of the Maryknoll Philippine Center in Tokyo for almost two decades, assisting migrant workers and families facing social difficulties, including isolation and cultural barriers. A poster from the 1999 legal outreach program of Kapisanan ng Migranteng Pilipino Inc. when Marianne “Chiquette” Dalumpines Tanizaki served as chairperson and worked with Filipino and Japanese lawyers to provide legal assistance to workers in Japan. Photo provided by Chiquette Tanizaki The weight of