After fierce debate and numerous setbacks, Japan enacted on June 9 controversial amendments to the immigration and refugee law enabling the government to deport repeat refugee applicants back to their countries of origin.
Opposition parties seeking to halt a bill on revising Japan’s immigration law are pouncing on the disproportionate workload assigned to certain counselors who review rejected applications for refugee status.
A Peruvian senior at university is struggling to secure employment after her expected graduation next year. But she has potentially bigger problems ahead concerning her lack of residency status.
The Immigration Services Agency has compiled its first guidelines for recognizing refugees, but critics charge the rules are still too strict and just a ploy to deflect opposition from legislation now before the Diet that could make it easier to deport those who have overstayed their visas.
A 30-year-old Kurdish man with Turkish nationality has been granted refugee status, according to government sources, which a refugee advocate group praised as the first such case in Japan.