By KOSUKE TAUCHI/ Staff Writer
April 15, 2022 at 18:16 JST
The building housing the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The Immigration Services Agency on April 15 agreed to allow people of Myanmar to remain in Japan longer due to the destabilized security situation in their homeland.
The agency has applied to such people preferential treatment as an emergency measure since May 2021 following the coup in Myanmar in February that year.
The agency said it has reviewed the measures because the situation in Myanmar has yet to be improved.
The agency said those who have stayed in Japan around the time of the coup and want to continue to stay but their visa has expired are mainly eligible for the preferential measures.
They have been granted to about 4,600 Myanmar's people by March this year, enabling them to work for six months.
Under the new policy, the period of stay will be lengthened to a year to allow them to have a more secure life in Japan.
The agency also said the number of Myanmar's people who were granted refugee status in 2021 was 32.
The agency apparently concluded that they were subject to persecution if they returned to Myanmar.
The figure was a significant jump from the previous year, when the number was zero.
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