LOL! That doubles their present resettlement numbers.
I doubt they impressed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees when he arrived there yesterday.
From The Japan Times:
Japan will consider accepting more Asian refugees from 2020, with an eye to doubling the current annual ceiling of about 30 to strengthen its response to regional humanitarian needs, government sources said Monday.
The government will review its current policy of receiving refugees only from Myanmar under the third-country resettlement program led by the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, while promoting their settlement not only in Tokyo and surrounding areas but in other parts of the country, according to the sources.
Tokyo is expected to convey the idea to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who is scheduled to visit Japan from Wednesday, the sources said.
Rohingya! For years I’ve been reporting that Japan was being sensible and saving itself from turmoil by not admitting Muslim refugees. Oh well.
Since 2010 under the third-country resettlement program, Japan has accepted a total of 174 Myanmar refugees, or 44 families, including some Rohingya Muslims from the western Rakhine State who had been persecuted and moved to neighboring Thailand and Malaysia.
Japan is known for its tight immigration policy. In 2017, the country accepted only 20 of about 20,000 people who applied for refugee status and allowed 45 to stay in the country on humanitarian grounds, according to the Justice Ministry.
Security concerns, yes. But, will their desire for cheap labor cause them to throw caution to the wind?
But some members of the LDP division expressed caution over the new status, pointing to a possible deterioration in public safety resulting from an increase in the number of foreigners in the country.
Shigeharu Aoyama, an Upper House member, said he absolutely opposes the law revision, stressing that the employment of Japanese people should be increased first to solve the nation’s labor shortages. One participant called for the division to spend sufficient time examining the legislation.
They plan to spread the new migrants out to the rural areas of the country.
Just the beginning?
See my Japan archive here.