Photo/Illutration Lu Lihua criticizes Japan for not having compassion for foreigners on June 4 in Osaka’s Kita Ward. (Yusuke Morishita)

The daughter of a 67-year-old Chinese man in poor health who died in detention is suing the Japanese government for compensation for damages caused by his death. 

“His health deteriorated, but he was not allowed to receive proper medical care,” said Lu Lihua, 41, who filed the lawsuit at the Osaka District Court in December 2020, demanding about 30 million yen ($273,900).

Lu Yongde died while being detained at a facility run by the Fukuoka Regional Immigration Services Bureau in 2018.

Lihua, who is from Guangzhou, said she and her father were followers of a religion that is related to Christianity and was banned by the Chinese government.

When they prayed at a follower’s home, Chinese police disrupted the proceedings and seized religious scripture and furniture, and Lu was detained and interrogated by police, according to the court filing and others.

In fall 2018, the two decided to come to Japan “to flee religious persecution” by the Chinese government and seek refugee status.

They flew from Guangzhou to Shanghai and arrived in Nagasaki on a ship on Oct. 15, 2018.

They were transported to the Fukuoka Regional Immigration Services Bureau and were detained.

Yongde had lived out of a wheelchair due to diabetes and a heart condition for several years.

On the following day after their arrival in Japan, he saw a doctor at a hospital and was diagnosed with a cerebral infarction and other medical conditions.

Because his face and belly became swollen, Yongde on Oct. 27, 2018, asked immigration officials to allow him to visit a hospital again.

Permission was granted on Oct. 29, 2018. But nine days later, Yongde died of multiple organ failure.

Later, Lihua received a provisional release status and started living in Osaka Prefecture.

“Japan is a country that has ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees," she said. "I thought Japan had compassion for foreigners, but I was fooled.”

The Japanese government has stated that immigration authorities allowed Yongde to go to a hospital and also provided him with medication based on the hospital’s diagnosis.

Yongde’s condition did not worsen to a degree that required immediate transport to a hospital until he saw a doctor on Oct. 29, 2018, the government said, demanding the suit be dismissed.

The second oral argument is scheduled on June 10.

Foreign nationals who overstay their visa and refuse to comply with a deportation order, including those who apply for refugee status, are detained at a facility run by immigration authorities.

Some became severely ill and died while being detained, raising the issue of health care services for detainees.

In 2017, a Vietnamese man died from subarachnoid bleeding while detained at a facility in Ibaraki Prefecture. He complained of feeling ill for a week but immigration authorities did not take him to an outside hospital for examination by specialists, according to a Justice Ministry report.

In 2019, a Nigerian man died while staging a hunger strike at an immigration facility in Nagasaki Prefecture.

In March this year, a Sri Lankan woman died while under detainment at a facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau.

The 33-year-old woman's death triggered an uproar as opposition lawmakers demanded a full accounting of how she died and her grieving family campaigned for release of surveillance camera footage from the detention facility. 

Lihua said, “Japan has not learned anything from my father’s death.”

(This article was written by Yusuke Morishita and Chifumi Shinya.)

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