Kirk here. If you or someone close to you is a Japanese citizen who needs a passport, you should know that it is now possible to apply for new passports online. Here’s the page on the prefecture’s website that explains it in Japanese:
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/70/161169.html
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230327_02/
Kumamoto is one of 16 prefectures to allow new applications online so I seems to be a bit better than average on this one.
