An autobiographical essay by a Middle Eastern high school girl living in the Kanto region has been adapted into a picture book.

“Watashi wa Jugosai” (I am 15), which was released in late August, shows readers the world through the eyes of the 15-year-old in extraordinary circumstances.

The girl, who is now 16, has been “provisionally released” from custody at an immigration facility—meaning that she has lost her residence status and may be deported, but has been temporarily released from detention. She can carry on with her life for the time being under heavy restrictions.

The picture book opens with a scene of the girl fleeing to Japan at age 5 with her family “from warfare to protect our lives.”

There, the girl is reunited with her father, who arrived before her.

Nine years later, however, the girl’s father loses his immigration status, and the teen is stripped of her right to reside in Japan.

The girl is released from detention and has no choice but to carry on as best she can, despite no longer being considered a regular immigrant and facing the threat of deportation.

DREAM OF GOING TO COLLEGE

Asylum seekers in Japan are often subjected to repatriation after their refugee applications are rejected under the nation’s strict recognition standards.

Foreign nationals temporarily returned to society are excluded from health insurance and other social security benefits. They are also prohibited from working and face restrictions on their movements and activities.

The high school girl wants to get a part-time job at a convenience store and visit Koreatown in Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo district to buy merchandise featuring her favorite K-pop idol.

But these normal teenage activities are forbidden. She is not allowed to work and cannot go to other prefectures without permission from the immigration authorities.

“I am now going through tough times because I can’t even do little things that would normally be taken for granted,” the girl wrote in her essay.

“My existence is being erased from Japan. In reality, I am actually a student leading a life in Japan,” she wrote.

The girl questions, “If human rights allow everyone to live freely as individuals, why don’t I have them? I have asked myself this over and over.”

Despite the restrictions and uncertainties in her life, the teen is working hard to achieve her dream of going to college and becoming a child care worker.

Toward the end of the picture book, she expresses her determination, saying, “I will do my best to prove that my home and identity are rooted in Japan.”

GRIM FAMILY BIRTHDAY

The creation of the picture book was suggested after the student’s essay won the top prize for writing last November in an exhibition of paintings and essays by provisionally released children.

The event was held by a network of lawyers who are pushing for immigration reform.

Masashi Otobe, 67, who runs the publishing firm Imagination +/ Press Inc., visited the exhibition in Tokyo. He offered to print a picture book adaptation to “show the existence of provisionally released children to Japanese kids.”

Committing himself to producing picture books, Otobe founded his own publishing company in 2018 under the slogans “sympathy,” “kindness” and “peace.” He said he has long been interested in issues involving immigration and foreign residents.

Otobe commissioned Shingo Narukawa, 35, a children’s book artist in Nagoya, and Takako Nakagawa, 52, an editor who runs a picture book-making school in the same city, to work on the project.

They decided to add a new character to the picture book who does not appear in the original essay—a Japanese girl whose life runs parallel to that of the essay’s author.

This addition is to help Japanese readers unfamiliar with immigration issues understand the author’s experiences by comparing the two girls’ lives across the essay’s storyline.

For example, the Japanese girl spends her family member’s birthday celebrating, while the essay’s author, temporarily released from detention at an immigration facility, recalls that her family’s residence status was taken away by authorities on what should have been her relative’s special day.

The huge gaps between their circumstances are portrayed with images of railway crossings and gates.

PEN NAME WITH PURPOSE

The high school student wanted to use her real name as she shared her plight with readers. However, people around her feared that she might become a target for further discrimination against foreign residents.

Instead, she chose to publish the book under the pen name “Az Brooma,” which means, “I am here.”

According to statistics from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, there were 200 children under the age of 18 on provisional release at the end of 2022.

Many of them arrived in Japan as young children or were born and raised in Japan. These children have few memories of their countries of origin, and Japanese is effectively their native language.

In many cases, these children hope to continue their lives in Japan.