by Sakiko Maruyama

In the last class, we had a debate on whether Japan should accept more refugees. It was helpful for me to think about the matter from both points of views. For side was superior in the last debate, and I think it isn’t a coincidence. Looking back the debate, I think the people in against side are difficult to beat for side. If such an outlook is reasonable, we can say Japan should increase the number of refugee recognition, and so I want to confirm it in this text as possible as I can.

Against sides usually give the examples about the shortage of jobs, the recession, and the public safety in Japan. That is, firstly, they say Japan can’t afford to accept refugees because Japan is in the depression these days and so Japanese employment rate is now bad. Then they say the refugees sometimes cause the deterioration of public safety. But all of these statements don’t have an effect on for sides. Japan has a bad employment rate, but on the other hand, the rural areas are aging seriously and there are few young workers in the agriculture or fishery.  For sides cite this fact and say Japan has many rooms to employ refugees in those industries. Indeed, this solution would help both Japanese society and refugees. They also say it is prejudice to regard refugees as an obstacle of public safety. From this matter, it seems that the basic viewpoints on both sides are originally different. It is important for against sides that refugees may have a bad effect on Japanese society, but for sides emphasize the rights of refugees and the refugees are fundamentally not the objet being measured the value for them.

Therefore, even if against sides give many examples about bad aspects of refugees, anything can’t deny their human rights, and then for side would more reasonable in any case. Japan itself signed the UN Conventions Relating to the Status of Refugees and has responsibility about refugee recognition. But in fact, there are many problems about the system. The rate of the recognition today is 1 out of 300. The problems are lying not in refugees but in Japan. The refugees have already been making efforts to be recognized in Japanese society.  It’s we that need to approach them politically and socially.

by Maho Machida

Japan signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1982 and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1983. However, we cannot say that Japan has put it into practice, because it accepts very few refugees. In class discussion, I was surprised when I learned that just only 21 people out of 1800 asylum-seekers were accepted as refugees in 2010. This figure is too small for Japan which is obliged to protect their human rights, I think.

It is certain that Japan cannot afford to support them because of a recent recession. The percentage of graduates finding employment has been declining year by year. In addition to it, admitting more refugees may confuse domestic situation. It is because Japanese existing system does not fit them and few ordinary Japanese know them and media rarely reports them. Therefore, refugees have more difficulty adjusting to life in such society than immigrant countries such as the US. They may suffer from prejudice. I don’t hope such situation both Japanese and refugees live uncomfortably and confront each other in Japan. However, that doesn’t mean to agree with keeping Japan’s closed policy toward refugees.

In the world, there are still many people who are subjected to persecution because of racial, religious, and political conflicts. Not all people can choose a host country and some of asylum-seekers in Japan have no way but to come to Japan. However, the receiving organization in Japan is not clear and on neutral ground. The certification standard for refugees is high. Moreover, it takes a lot of time to admit them. During that period, they cannot receive social security and work in Japan. This is far from humanitarian and protecting human rights, I think.

Therefore, in my opinion, we should be open to them even step by step. As we discuss in class last week, we could revitalize our economy by receiving more refugees. For example, they can work in agriculture and the fishing industry where labor shortage has been serious problem in Japan. Actually, women refugees who came from Asia are engaged in nursing care, supporting more and more the old in Japan. The group of Myanmar refugees went to the disaster-stricken area, Tohoku, to help people as volunteers. I think we should not consider refugees are a burden for us, but expecting their possibility. This way of thinking may be more necessary as globalization progresses.

by Maika Kubo

Since I learn about refugee in this class, I thought refugee problem is only for African countries which don’t have respectable government. In this class, I learned that there are many people living in western countries (the US, Europe…) as refugees, and even Japan accepts refugees. I was surprised not only the fact that there are refugees in Japan but also the fact that I hadn’t have chance to know about that.

In late 1970s, Japan began to accept Indochina refugees (Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian) because of a pressure of the US. After the Vietnam War, the new governments were started in Indochina countries, and people who can’t accept new governments escaped their countries. Under the system of cold war, the US had to accept a huge number of Indochina refugees. After this reception, Japan joined the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981. According to the web site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Japan accepted 11,391 Indochina refugees until 2005 (Japan stopped accepting Indochina refugees in 2005), and 508 convention refugees until 2008. In 2010, Japan started to accept Myanmar refugees staying refugee camp in Thailand. 90 refugees will accepted from 2010 to 2013. As the data describes, Japan’s reception of refugees is very small. For example, according to the web site of UNHCR, in 2006, Japan accepted 451 Afghan refugees while the US accepted 800,000.

There are some reasons why Japan accepts few refugees. First, the rate of recognition of refugee is very low. Japan’s rate of recognition of refugee is 0.3 % while the US’s rate is 53% in 2011. In Japan, the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice examines refugees. Refugees who couldn’t be recognized as refugee can make an objection, however, this objection is also examined by the Immigration Bureau. It is said that they should be separated. Because the rate of recognition of refugee is very low, the number of applicant to Japan becomes very few. Also, not only the government, the whole Japanese society treats refugees coolly. From these facts, the number of refugee becomes very few in Japan.

As the globalization towards, the connections between each countries are becoming stronger and stronger. Each counties will be needed to accept refugees more generously, because it is one of the international cooperation. Japan’s negative attitude toward reception of refugee is already criticized in international society.

by Koichi Sugimoto

There are so many refugees in the world, and they are abandoned by their own government. They are getting a lot of troubles such as living, eating, working and raising children, so they have to find a place which they can be alive. In my opinion, Japan should accept refugees. In this blog, I am going to argue how refugees in Japan spend their lives by using things I learned in the class in terms of Japan’s policy, and how much benefits Japan can get.

Now, refugees in Japan are facing harsh reality because the government of Japan has taken a restricted approach to the protection of refugees. For example, when refugees apply for refugee status, they have to be approved by the Ministry of Justice within 6 months of entering Japan with effective evidence. It’s very hard for them because they escaped from their homeland to Japan for requiring more comfortable conditions, so they had have no time to organize evidence. In practice, when they are interviewed to get refugee status, the interviewer often says that is your country such a desperate circumstance? I don’t think so. You can back to there. Therefore, people who are approved as refugee in Japan are very less compared with other developed countries. Moreover, they need a visa to live in Japan, but it’s also difficult. If they cannot get it, they are regarded as illegal resident by the government. If that is exposed, they will be taken to a prison by the police, that is, they are arrested.

By the way, the present Japan’s economic conditions is not so good, and also the government is required to improve this condition, but now actually the Democratic Party of Japan is going to go out of power with declining of an approval rating. What is the way out of the present situation? That’s related to refugees. That’s why I think admitting refugees can be a key to improve economic situation. Refugees are surely not good at speaking Japanese, and also their cultures are different from Japan. They have different values, so that sounds like it is difficult to fit in Japanese society. However, they can be good workers in Japan. Recently people tend to change the job from the upper class to the lower class, that is, they try to get good working conditions such as treatment and pay. On the other hand, people gradually leave a severe working, and then refugees can be an important factor for improving that. They may become workers who can do a job which Japanese people don’t like. If so, this condition will be improved. This is my argument, but some people may think a bad point that refugees have a possibility to cause a crime, or it’s hard to study Japanese and raise children, but first actually all refugees have no possibility to cause a crime. That is Japanese prejudice, and Japanese tend to have that image. It’s a mere guess. Second, Japanese may be difficult for them, but the time will be able to solve this problem, and about their children, the government should take care of them in the beginning.

For the above reasons, the government of Japan should admit refugees, but to do that, they need to make a system to make this problem going well.

by Kie Maruoka

The Japanese government affirms that “refugee assistance is a bounden duty of a member of the international community,” and “one of the important pillars of Japan’s contribution to world peace and prosperity.” The Japanese Government also gives money to foreign countries for refugees. Japan is the third-largest donor after the U.S. and EU. However, money is not everything, and the reality in Japan is serious. Many refugees escape from their home country to Japan. And the number of refugees that the Japanese government admitted is very small. In 2001, Japan admitted 26 refugees even though more than million people in the world are hoping to be accepted as refugee. Moreover in the same year, the US accepted more than 20,000 people as refugees. Takizawa Saburo, who is the UNHCR Representative in Japan, says that “The ratio of asylum seekers coming to japan is only 0.0013％.”

Also even if people are admitted as refugees in Japan, their life is not comfortable. Those people can’t get a job easily because of the lack of the Japanese skills and the restriction of the refugees’ access to information. They don’t have many friends who they can rely on. So they can’t gain information enough. Also if they can get a job, their job is very hard. From the research, at the refugee camps in Thailand, Japanese government is showing ‘promotion video’ which says that Japan is a safe country where people can easily live with few problems. So if Japanese government wants to appeal that we welcome refugees to the world, they should adopt more refugees and establish more supporting program for refugees.

In the debate last week, I heard some demerits of accepting refugees in Japan. It is true that now the unemployment problem is serious in Japan. So if more refugees come into Japan, this problem may become more serious. However, in my opinion, this problem is different. Those people who want to be accepted as refugees experienced very serious situation in their home country. Their daily life is not guaranteed and they are always facing dangerous happenings in their home country. Therefore in Japan, as a one of the international society, we should consider what we can do for those people. And the governments need to try to help and to establish better programs for them.

by Akifumi Kamamoto

From my research and our classes, I found that Japan has a strict policy toward refugees although the number of refugees is increasing. You can see the clear statistics that Japan is not tolerant toward refugees, on the other side many countries receive much more refugees. Of course Japan has policy of refugee protection, too. However there are some problems in the policy and they make the difficult situation for refugees.

It is said that there are four contents which make refugee application difficult in refugee application procedures. First, they have to make application within 60 days when they come to Japan or they are regarded as refugee. If they missed the deadline, they could not be regarded as legal refugee and could not get any protection. Second, there are some lacks in the policy about their capacity to live in Japan and protection of refugees. In fact these policies exist, but these standards don’t come up to that of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Third, those who apply to be refugee in Japan cannot get legal standing during application. So they are treated as the same as foreigner who don’t have right to live in Japan then. Finally, Japanese government thinks that it is more important to recognize to be refugee under the judge by political and diplomatic reasons than under the judge by rule of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. These problems make receiving refugees much more difficult.

Although these problems are pointed out seriously, these days refugee application procedures in Japan is improved gradually through comprehensive action by the government or residential society. As a result, there is the statistics that the number of receiving refugees is increasing. Also, the third country residents (第三国定住) program, which is adopted the first in Asia, is paid attention.

In conclusion, I think Japan is improving its thought about refugees. Although Japan has some risks when it accepts them, Japan should be more tolerant toward them. Some refugees cannot stay and live in their own countries, and have to leave in order to continue to live. At the same time, Japan has problems, such as a declining birthrate or a labor shortage in the country or so. Then, we need the power and cooperation of refugees. So, I think Japan should receive much more refugees in order to help them and to improve our society.

References

UNHCR JAPAN (2012/11/13) http://www.unhcr.or.jp/html/protect.html

日本の難民制度・難民政策(2012/11/13) http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~pinktri/afghan/japanrefugee.html

by Yuuka Kageyama

According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2011, only 21 of applicants are accepted as refugees in Japan although 1,867 people have been wishing. It is clear that Japan has accepted small number of refugees compared to other developed countries and the way to support refugees in Japan need improving.

Although many countries have accepted and assisted refugees, there are still so many people who are suffering from humanitarian problems such as persecution, discrimination and abuse of human right in their countries. They don’t have house to live in because they are ejected during war or conflict. Considering this situation in the world, should Japan accept more refugees?  There are many points to consider in discussing this program. First, Japan cannot afford to help them very well because Japan’s national debt is getting larger and larger. Moreover, Japan has still many people who are living in the tent and requiring aid in Tohoku region after the earthquake. Second, Japan’s society and community is difficult to fit in because of the difference of culture and language, that is, the refugees accepted in Japan may be faced with many difference, difficulty and even discrimination

However, as Japan is often pointed out about its negative attitude toward refugee policy by other countries, I think Japan should accept more refugees and take more care of them in Japan economically, politically, culturally, physically and mentally. The reasons are as follows;

First, Japan had ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which means Japan has a responsibility to protect refugees. If Japan keeps its negative attitude toward this policy, it can be said that Japan is pushing it responsibility off onto other member nations.

Second, the problems on refugees are relating to the fundamental human right. Some people may say that Japan’s government should focus on its citizen’s lives first. It may be reasonable to claim like that in part but I want to ask that which is more important and prior, to ensure human rights and the right to life, or to be better off in high standard level of life.

I don’t mean that government should make light of the life of citizen in Japan nor their lives should be sacrifices. However, it would be too late that the government starts to take measures about refugees seriously after solving Japan’s internal problem completely.

by Akisato Fujita

According to Japan Association for Refugees, the number of people who come to Japan as refugees has increased rapidly. From 1999 to 2009, the number of the people has been more than 5,594, which is more than 6 times compared to 889 from 1989 to 1999. However, in fact, Japan does not take a positive attitude toward recognizing them as refugees and accepting them. For example, in 2009, 1,388 people made the application to refugees of Japan, but the Japanese Government recognized only 30 people as refugees. In addition, even though the government decides to accept refugees, there are not enough systems and laws for them in Japan. It is natural that they know nothing about Japanese language, society and custom. Therefore, the government has a duty to support them, but now, it cannot be said that the support is sufficient.

It is thought that Japan should improve this situation considering the international and national issues. First, Japan could be criticized by other countries because of not contributing to the international society as one of the developed countries. Japan is one of the countries which signed the 1951 UN Conventions Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Therefore, Japan has an obligation to save refugees actively. Japan Association for Refugees reports that about 34 percent of the world’s refugees (3.82 million people) are in the Asia-Pacific Ocean region. It is considered that accepting these people could show Japan’s affirmative attitude toward the problem of refugees, and it would connect to enhancing the status of the international community. Second, the number of people in Japan has been decreasing today. Now, the population of Japan is about 120 million. However, according to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it is estimated that the total population would decrease to 90 million people, and the rate of aging would become close to 40% by 2060. It means that the working population in Japan would become smaller and the economy should become weak in the future. In order to solve this problem, accepting refugees as the work force could be an effective way. They would work in Japan and sustain Japanese economy and society.

There are some negative opinions about admitting more refugees in Japan, but refugees could have positive influences on Japan. In short, Japan should get ready for the laws and systems for refugees which guarantee their status as refugees and make their life in Japan comfortable, and accept more refugees.