THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 14, 2022 at 16:57 JST
Pyae Lyan Aung, a member of the Myanmar national soccer team who was recognized as a refugee in 2021, attends a protest against the coup in Myanmar held in front of the Foreign Ministry in February. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Japan granted refugee status to a record 74 individuals in 2021, nearly half of whom had fled the military coup in Myanmar that year.
The Immigration Services Agency announced May 13 that the number of people recognized as refugees represented an increase of 27 from the previous year.
In addition, 580 foreign nationals were granted special permission to stay in Japan out of humanitarian consideration, although they were not recognized as refugees. The figure contrasted with the 44 allowed special permission to remain in Japan in 2020 for humanitarian reasons.
Among those recognized as refugees, 32 were from Myanmar. Agency officials said 18 were from China and nine from Afghanistan.
For the three years until 2020, no one from Myanmar was recognized as a refugee, but the coup in February 2021 prompted a rethink in policy toward those facing persecution in their native land.
Individuals from Myanmar also comprised the bulk of those given special permission to remain in Japan for humanitarian reasons. Of the 580 given special permission, 525 were granted that status due to “the situation in their homeland.” And of that number, 498, or more than 90 percent, were from Myanmar.
Agency officials said 2,413 people applied for refugee status in 2021, about a 40 percent decrease from the previous year. Entry restrictions to prevent a spread of the novel coronavirus led to a drastic reduction in the number of foreign nationals visiting Japan.
Those recognized as refugees are granted “long-term resident” status for five years and conditions for obtaining permanent resident status are also relaxed.
Over the 40 years since Japan began recognizing refugees, only 915 individuals have been recognized as refugees out of the 87,892 who applied.
Japan has faced severe criticism for its strict interpretation of the refugees convention, which accounts for the vastly smaller number of recognized refugees in comparison to Western nations.
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