by Daiki Nishiyama

In Japan, the number of refugees is surprisingly small. In fact, I haven’t met refugees in Japan and haven’t heard the news on refugees in Japan.

Japan has accepted 10,000 refugees since 500 Indo-Chinese refugees came to Japan 1979. But Japan has recognized 50 refugees out of 1100 applicants. Compared with other industrialized countries, the number of refugees in Japan is much smaller. Why doesn’t Japan accept refugees coming to Japan? It is said that there are some reasons about the situation. Firstly, Japanese people are concerned about deterioration in security in Japanese society by increasing the number of foreigners. But this is not the fact. Japanese people have a prejudice against foreigners. The number of foreigners does not have anything to do with the criminal rate in Japan. Secondly, Japan doesn’t have enough support for refugees. Even though refugees are admitted as refugees in Japan, it is difficult for them to get jobs and health support. They cannot get the health insurance. That is, refugees can suffer from many problems.

Although the number of admitting refugees is small, Japan donates a lot of money toward refugees’ policies. Some people insisted in the last class that if Japan admitted more refugees, it needed to use more money to support refugees in Japanese society. I think this statement is inconsistent and Japan needs to use more money to increase the number of refugees in Japanese society.

To change the situation now, we Japanese people have to understand the reality in Japan. Since we are ignorant about the Japanese not-enough policies toward refugees, the situation never change. As we know the bad situation toward refugees, the Japanese government would take some actions.