Legal Japan's new immigration law raises concerns

Yesterday, Japan enacted controversial amendments to the immigration and refugee law enabling the government to deport repeat refugee applicants back to their countries of origin. While the government has sought to assure its critics that it will "respond appropriately" to refugee cases that it sees, its ability to ensure the safety of the rising number of vulnerable people worldwide is under serious doubt at a time when it has given itself greater powers over them.

While Japan currently cannot send a foreign national whose refugee status application is being processed back to their home countries, the immigration authorities suspect many have abused the system by applying multiple times to remain in the nation. Under the amended law, the government will aim to reduce long-term detention in immigration facilities and encourage the expulsion of foreign individuals who do not comply with deportation orders issued for overstaying. Opponents have argued that the revised legislation could result in the repatriation of those who are at risk of persecution in their home countries, endangering their lives, and also lead to the expulsion of children who were born and brought up in Japan. As of the end of last year, 4,233 foreign nationals had refused to return home despite being ordered to do so, according to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan. The law will allow the government to expel individuals who fail to present reasonable grounds to be granted refugee status after their third request.

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What are the significant revisions?

• First, it will establish a framework to accept "quasi-refugees" fleeing from conflicts such as the war in Ukraine. Japan currently only recognizes people as refugees who face persecution for their "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." People fleeing conflict are often disqualified.
• Second, the bill will enable authorities to deport people who apply for refugee status three times or more. Foreign nationals undergoing refugee screening cannot be deported regardless of how many times they have applied, their reason for applying or their criminal record. The number of people applying for recognition as refugees has increased in recent years, and authorities say some people are abusing the law to avoid deportation and stay in Japan illegally.
• Third, foreigners undergoing exit procedures will be conditionally allowed to live outside detention facilities, while those detained will undergo periodic reviews on whether they should continue to be detained. Under the current law, foreign nationals subject to deportation due to expired or revoked resident or refugee status are usually confined. But incarceration can be prolonged if deportation procedures are slowed by legal actions such as applying for refugee status.

Why is it controversial?

Supporters of asylum seekers are expressing concerns about the proposed limitation on the number of times people can apply for refugee status. They worry that such a change could result in the deportation of individuals who continue to face persecution in their home countries.

Japan has stringent criteria when it comes to granting refugee status. In 2022, a record high of 202 people were recognized as refugees, but this only accounted for 5% of the 3,700 applications received. In contrast, the United States and Europe grant asylum to tens of thousands yearly.

The Japan Association for Refugees states that Japan's asylum system deems people ineligible for refugee status who would be approved in many other countries. For instance, while Turkish Kurds are granted refugee status in numerous nations, only one out of approximately 2,000 Kurdish asylum-seekers from Turkey has been recognized as a refugee in Japan thus far.

Paywall alert:

I feel like these amendments are reasonable. To me, the issue is more the opaque process and criteria for letting in refugees. There's something like a 99% chance of a refugee's application being rejected, regardless of the circumstances. Ukrainian refugees were given some special consideration, but the overall picture is grim for refugees. It's a tough problem. If there is a sub-1% chance of getting into Japan as a refugee under any circumstance, limiting the number of times a person can apply to three times feels like a minor, second-order problem.

And then my mind wanders to the possibilities of allowing in more refugees with a view to revitalizing some of Japan's rural areas, but then I get into an internal debate of whether that's fair to both the refugees or to rural Japan, and then I trip up on all the possible problems this creates. What would be ideal is if these rural areas put up their hands and said, "we have housing here, and we have land that needs to be cleared/farmed, and we have people here who can help out with Japanese language and capital/credit, and we are prepared to take in X number of refugees". I'm afraid that is maybe too idealistic, though.

And, if you couldn't tell, I'm stuck on the problem of "what if those refugees don't want to stay long-term in the boondocks"? You can't force people to stay tied to farms. And you can't blame refugees for wanting to seek out better opportunities for employment, education, romantic partners, in the big cities. So its tough to say, "we welcome refugees to our underpopulated farm areas - but they have to stay there forever".

Even if you say, "your entry to Japan is conditional on you staying 10 years working on a farm in Yamagata" and the refugee agrees to it (cause he's desperate - he will agree to anything) it creates a bureaucratic problem if the farm area doesn't work out for him - for any reason. Maybe he finds out he is allergic to the cedar pollen, or unable to find a doctor who can speak the refugee's language, or the refugee's kids are bullied, or some other reason. You just can't lock people to the land in the 21st century. Maybe there is some kind of solution, but it seems a tough nut to crack.