April 23, 2021
OSAKA -The Mainichi- A 42-year-old Cameroonian woman who was applying for refugee status in Japan passed away at a Tokyo hospital in the early morning of Jan. 23. She was detained at immigration facilities twice and temporarily released, but had nowhere to live and was for a time homeless. Just three hours after her death, she received a document allowing her to stay in Japan. Couldn’t her life have been saved?
Relindis Mai Ekei was from northwestern Cameroon, in central Africa. In July 2004, she dropped out of a local university and got help from relatives to come to Japan. After her residence status expired, she carried on making ends meet by working at a convenience store, a factory and elsewhere.
Was Cameroonian woman s death hours after she was given Japan residency avoidable? (Pt. 1)
April 24, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
This provided photo shows the late Relindis Mai Ekei. According to her supporters, she was always smiling. (Photo courtesy of Mai s supporters) OSAKA A 42-year-old Cameroonian woman who was applying for refugee status in Japan passed away at a Tokyo hospital in the early morning of Jan. 23. She was detained at immigration facilities twice and temporarily released, but had nowhere to live and was for a time homeless. Just three hours after her death, she received a document allowing her to stay in Japan. Couldn t her life have been saved?
Protest held in front of Osaka immigration bureau against long detention of asylum seekers
April 14, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
People protest the bill to revise the immigration law in front of the Osaka Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Osaka s Suminoe Ward on April 13, 2021. (Mainichi/Rei Kubo) OSAKA A demonstration opposing the bill to revise the immigration law was held in front of the Osaka Regional Immigration Services Bureau in the city s Suminoe Ward on April 13, with protesters silently displaying placards with messages such as Long detentions violate human rights. The Japanese government submitted the draft revision to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act in the ongoing Diet session. Its aim is said to be to solve issues of long-term detentions of foreign nationals served with deportation orders at immigration facilities. While the bill would establish a supervisory measure system in which people would be permitted to live outside of deten
Never give up! 95 year old Hibakusha welcomes the UN nuclear ban treaty
December 30, 2020 (Mainichi Japan) Following news that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would enter into force early in 2021, some 200 people including atomic-bomb survivors, or hibakusha, gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in the western Japan city of Hiroshima on Oct. 25, 2020 and shared their joy.
But one “face” of the city bombed during World War II, who four years earlier had smiled as he shook hands with Barack Obama, the first U.S. President to visit Hiroshima while in office, was not able to take part. The following hibakusha report, coming 75 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, focuses on the life of this figure, 95-year-old Sunao Tsuboi, who has stood at the forefront of hibakusha activities with an indomitable spirit.