JAPAN: No Home Away From Home for Refugees

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 16 2006 (IPS) - Despite spending more than half his life in Japan, Min Maung Nyo, a Burmese national who first arrived in 1989 to study agriculture and never went back after the military junta took over, says he longs to return some day.

”Japan does not easily accept foreigners both legally and socially, which is one of the key reasons why it’s difficult to call Japan home,” says Min who heads the Burma Democratic Movement in Japan, a lobby group advocating democratic reform in the home country.

Min speaks for hundreds of Burmese refugees as well as many other nationalities who have filed for asylum in Japan, most of them living in limbo, till they get a positive answer from a government that has gained a reputation as a closed country.

Last year, Japan accepted 46 refugees from among more than 300 applicants of which 42 were of Burmese nationality.

”Japan is not the kind country for foreigners seeking refugee status and even for those who have been accepted,” says Fusako Yanase, spokesperson for the Association for Aid and Relief in Japan, a leading support group.

Yanase bases her judgment on her 27-year experience working with Indo-Chinese refugees living in Japan since 1975 when Japan was forced to accept people fleeing hardship in post-war Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, after intense international pressure.

The government then adopted a refugee policy for the first time that permitted a small number – the first target was 500 but later increased to 10,000- Indo-Chinese refugees who had begun arriving in boatloads in Japan just like they were seeking refuge in other industrialized countries.

This month, Japanese officials wind up that 30-year programme and reports a total of almost 12,000 Indo-Chinese refugees in the country, the largest group of people seeking asylum.

In line with the policy, the government will also end its support programmes for Indo-Chinese refugees such as learning centers and shelters that had provided short-term language classes and other cross-cultural communication lessons to facilitate adoption of their new country.

Activists are dismayed with the situation. ”We have a lot more to do to help the refugees in Japan despite the end of the refugee programme that covered them. Second and third generation Indo-Chinese continue to face hardship in Japan and need help,” explained Yanase.

Indeed, a survey on the group taken in 2000 by the foreign ministry, indicates the refugees have mixed feelings about the country that offered them a safe haven when they needed it.

While 60 percent replied they were grateful to be able to come to Japan, there was 35 percent who indicated that life had not improved or had even got worse since they settled down.

They cited lack of language proficiency, economic hardship and difficulty in finding decent housing in that order.

Yanase adds that surveys conducted by activists show more than half of Cambodians wanting to return home as also a third of Vietnamese.

Indo-Chinese refugees, she says, are unhappy with their jobs-the first generation especially were employed in unskilled labour despite being well-educated at home – and had difficulty passing exams for top level professions and were treated as outsiders by their Japanese neighbours.

”There is no doubt that Indo-Chinese refugees are treated poorly compared to Westerners who have settled in Japan. This is why Japan continues to be a hard destination for these people and as soon as they see their countries open up, they prefer to go home,” says Yanase.

Eri Ishikawa, head of the Refugee Support Programme, a civic group, says the hardships faced by people seeking refugee status-some wait for more than ten years-is one of the many symbols of how difficult it is to live in Japan.

”One of our biggest concerns is the lack of a comprehensive refugee recognition policy in Japan. The justice ministry decides on an ad hoc basis giving us or the applicant no explanation on the reason for turning down an application,” she said.

Experts says Japan’s experience with Indo-Chinese refugees has extended valuable learning experience for the country that is reluctantly facing its internationalisation, and is forced to give up national pride in its homogeneity – a status that human rights advocates call a myth by pointing to minority groups such as ethnic Koreans who have been living here since the 20th century.

Polls show that many second and third generation refugee populations value Japan’s high education and technical standards but are disappointed by visa barriers and the lack of awareness and respect for their own culture by the Japanese.

Yanase has also begun programmes to help refugees feel comfortable with their identity by teaching Japanese about other cultures and the benefit of cross cultural communication in changing Japan.