A bill to revise the refugee recognition law that passed a Lower House committee on April 28 almost mirrors proposed legislation scrapped two years ago due to criticism both within Japan and overseas.
A 15-year-old Kurdish boy faces a precarious future as lawmakers started full-scale discussions on speeding up deportations of foreign nationals illegally staying in Japan.
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.
Correctional officers at Nagoya Prison singled out three inmates to repeatedly abuse over the course of nearly a year by spraying their faces with sanitizer used to prevent COVID-19 infections, slapping them and physically inflicting pain in other ways, the Justice Ministry said.