Rethinking Japan’s refugee and asylum policy
19 January 2021
Author: Hirotaka Fujibayashi, Graduate Institute, Geneva
In 2020, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, under the UN Commission on Human Rights, levelled criticism against Japan’s asylum system. The Working Group’s Opinion was primarily adopted to urge the Japanese government to review its inhuman treatment of long-term detainees, the vast majority of which are seeking asylum. The Opinion also touched on a more fundamental issue: Japan’s strict refugee screening system.
Throughout former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, immigration was an important political issue. Political debates on immigration a traditionally taboo topic in Japanese politics flourished. Abe’s aim of increasing ‘semi-skilled’ foreign workers, not ‘immigrants’, led to the 2018 reform of Japan’s national immigration law, the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (ICRRA). A series of politic
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level, you know, in economics or government, you understand that you can actually even if you re in a ho moj nows area, you can find diversity if you look for it and value it. this is a question about values. if you value it, you would have more people. that s just the way it is. these are personal choices and more than enough people who are qualified to do these jobs. there are four women there, there s an african-american, an asian-american, indian-american. i don t that s diversity. it may not be the diversity that you like, but it s diversity. it is a diverse cabinet. we should celebrate it. the idea that it s not is laughable. it is a diverse cabinet and it s a good thing. the premise of the question, though let me laugh. i m going to laugh. it s laughable. all right. i have to go. on that note, i do have to go. thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate it. when we come right back, are the trumps the new kennedys? i ll ask robert f. kennedy jr. about that. t s chat in foo