Immigration authorities exonerated detention officials of the hunger strike death of a Nigerian detained at a facility in Nagasaki, though forced feeding measures--which were an option--were not taken.

The Justice Ministry said on Oct. 1 after results of the review by the Immigration Services Agency were released that it took steps to ensure such facilities are better equipped to take medical interventions in the future to prevent similar outcomes.

The man in his 40s, whose name has not been released, was found unconscious in his cell at the Omura Immigration Center on June 24, and later pronounced dead.

The agency said it was the first time a detainee at one of its facilities had died of starvation.

Reports of the man's death triggered hunger strikes by scores of detainees at the Omura and other facilities, where overstayers and other foreign nationals are incarcerated, often for long periods of time.

Nearly 100 of the detainees at the Omura center signed a petition requesting an investigation into the case.

The agency's report said the man went on a hunger strike to gain provisional release and lost 13 kilograms over the three-week period leading up to his death.

An autopsy showed that the 171-centimeter-tall man weighed about 47 kg at the time of death, down from 71 kg in October 2018.

The doctor who performed the autopsy indicated that he might have been saved had he been taken to a hospital and given an IV drip, but that the chances would not have been very high.

Immigration Services Agency officials said that staff members at the Omura facility repeatedly told the man that fasting would endanger his life and that he should receive treatment, but he continued to refuse treatment and meals.

According to the report, the man entered Japan in 2000, but was later found guilty of burglary and imprisoned. After being released on parole, he was placed in an immigration facility in Osaka in 2015, where he was given a deportation order. He was transferred to the Omura facility in 2016.

After center officials realized the man was not eating toward the end of May 2019, a part-time doctor at the facility tried to administer an IV drip and take a blood test, but he refused to cooperate. He did agree to receive treatment at an outside hospital until early June, but subsequently refused treatment of any kind within and outside the center.

From about June 8, he spent his days lying in his cell.

One June 17, when the man weighed just 50 kg, staff members at the center warned him that his life was in danger, but he continued to refuse treatment. The doctor who examined him said the only alternative would have been to take him to a hospital by ambulance after he lost consciousness or became too weak to refuse treatment.

Although officials at the center were told the man had lost about 10 kg, the situation continued until his death.

Facility officials did not inform the doctor of a 2001 Justice Ministry directive that allowed such personnel to take aggressive measures to treat those who refused food, determining that it would be difficult to provide nutritional supplements over a long period given the facility's limited medical staff and no hospitals nearby suitable for carrying out such treatment.

The report said the man was not granted provisional release because of the egregious and organized nature of his crime, though further details of the burglary case were not divulged.

At a news conference on Oct. 1, Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai said he gave instructions to establish a structure--such as hiring full-time doctors--to allow for the carrying out of forced medical treatment for detainees on hunger strikes.

According to the Immigration Services Agency, there were 36 detainees at facilities around Japan as of the end of September on hunger strikes demanding their provisional release.

Many of those demanding release were critical of the long periods many have had to endure.

Of the 1,246 detainees at immigration facilities at the end of 2018, 681 had been detained for more than six months.

The agency has set up a task force of experts to look into how to deal with the issue and their recommendations are expected by March 2020.