A Peruvian senior at university is struggling to secure employment after her expected graduation next year. But she has potentially bigger problems ahead concerning her lack of residency status.

Born in Japan to parents who entered the country illegally, the 21-year-old woman said she is closely following developments in the Diet over a bill to revise immigration law.

The outcome of talks on protecting children in her predicament could determine if she can continue living in the only country she really knows.

The student resides in Osaka Prefecture and has never been to Peru. She has been told to “go to her home country,” but she can barely speak Spanish.

Her parents entered Japan in the 1990s after falsely gaining visas for people of Japanese descent. They worked in a factory and elsewhere in Japan. They had two children here, the student and her now 19-year-old brother.

When she was in her third year of junior high school, her father was deported to Peru. An immigration official told the remaining three family members to “pack up and go back.”

At the time, she was deep into the activities of the brass band club at the school.

“I can’t have that. We have a regular concert.” That was all she could manage to say to the official.

A supporter who was at the scene recalled, “It was the cry of a child whose existence has been denied since birth.”

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Japan has ratified, stipulates that “in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

In light of the convention, the three family members filed a lawsuit seeking “special permission to stay in Japan,” a type of residence status. But their defeat in court was finalized.

They are now petitioning for a retrial for the special permission.

Although freed from detention, they are now living under provisional release, in which they are not allowed to work and must gain permission from authorities to go outside the prefecture where they reside.

The student’s dream is to work at a musical instrument store, but she said she can’t find a company that will hire a person without residency status.

She said her future depends on whether she will be granted special permission to stay in Japan. If denied the permission, she may be forced to leave Japan after graduating from university.

‘BARGAINING CHIP’

According to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 4,233 foreign nationals who had refused deportation orders remained in Japan as of the end of last year.

Less than 5 percent of them, or 201, are children under the age of 18 who were born in Japan.

During Lower House deliberations, the ruling coalition agreed to reflect the demands of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law.

The CDP’s demands included a clause specifying that the “interests of a child” shall be taken into consideration when authorities decide whether to grant special permission to remain in Japan to children of parents illegally staying in the country.

However, the CDP ultimately opposed the bill, and the ruling coalition deleted all revisions reflecting the opposition party’s demands. The Lower House passed the bill on May 9.

The Upper House Committee on Judicial Affairs started deliberations on the bill on May 16.
The Peruvian woman’s supporters feel that the “special permission” became a bargaining chip for both the ruling and opposition parties.

Granting special permission is left to the discretion of justice minister, who takes into account humanitarian issues and other factors.

Shogo Watanabe, head of the Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees, said special permission to stay in Japan should not have been part of the discussions on revising the immigration law.

“I don’t want lawmakers to take children hostage,” Koichi Kodama, a lawyer and a member of the organization, said. “If special permission to stay in Japan is truly necessary, please grant it immediately.”

(This article was written by Ari Hirayama and Kazumichi Kubota.)