Photo/Illutration A park at night (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

She was six months pregnant. Her two toddlers, pressed tightly to her sides, were shivering in the cold.

Couched down inside a train station in Tokyo, she endured that night in the dead of winter. The cold indifference of passers-by stung her. Nobody stopped to help.

“It was just terrible. We were freezing,” she recalled, her eyes downcast.

Idi (not her real name) from Africa was an applicant for refugee status. She fled her native town after her husband and many other residents were killed in an armed attack by anti-government forces.

Together with her two small children, she arrived in Japan on a temporary visa. After living on the streets for a while, she and her children were rescued by a private support group that literally saved their lives.

Including Japan, all signatories to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees are obligated to protect asylum seekers. However, unlike nations such as Britain, France and Germany, Japan’s legal system does not guarantee their livelihood.

Even though Japan provides “welfare payments” that are not backed by law, applicants are screened so rigidly that many fail to meet the requirements and end up homeless.

I recently received a phone call from another applicant for refugee status with whom I’d become acquainted before in a park.

“Please help,” he begged. “I’m starving. I can’t bear this anymore.”

I met him. He was gaunt and his eyes were vacuous. He’d been living on the streets for two months. He was done in, both physically and emotionally.

That night, I camped out next to him. Bugs crawled relentlessly under my clothes while my arms itched uncontrollably from countless mosquito bites.

On another night, we became drenched in heavy rain. Even though it was summer, we were chilled to the bone.

He murmured, “When winter comes, I may not survive.”

He added that he’d never imagined ending up like this in Japan.

After fleeing their countries and desperately seeking help from us, people are still being tormented and even being driven to the brink of death.

Why does this have to happen? Is this the society we hoped for and wanted to build?

—The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 23

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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