Condition of thousands of Balinese in Japan unknown

Concerns are growing over the safety of thousands of Balinese who may have been caught in the calamitous tsunami in Japan.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said on Monday that their conditions were still unknown.

“Many Balinese are in Japan. There are probably thousands of them. Some are students or interns, some are workers and there are probably those who went to Japan as tourists,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

He said his office was keeping in touch with the Indonesian embassy in Tokyo and with labor placement agencies to monitor their whereabouts.

Pastika, however, said he did not know the exact number of Balinese in Japan.

There have been no confirmed Indonesian casualties three days following the disaster. Japanese authorities have said it feared the death toll could reach in the tens of thousands.