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Government of Japan
H. E. Yoshihisa Furukawa, Minister of Justice

INSTEAD OF DEPORTING CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES FOR WHOM JAPAN IS HOME, GRANT SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMITS TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE

In December 2021 the Catholic Bishops of Japan held a workshop on refugees, migrants, and people on the move. Young people with foreign roots who were born and raised in Japan spoke of their situation.

Even though they were born in Japan, were educated in Japanese schools, and speak only Japanese, a decision has been made to deport them because their parents do not have residence status and so they also lack such status. Since childhood they have been forced to live with anxiety.

Although it defies common sense, it has been said that unless parents return to their home countries, there is a possibility that the residence of their children will not be recognized. It is unimaginably cruel to separate parents and children, leaving the children to reside alone in Japan.

In one case, a father was deported before his wife and children. The mother and children sought permission to remain in Japan, but their appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. They are now in danger of being forcibly deported.

For those born in Japan to parents who did not have residence status or who were brought to Japan as children and grew up here, Japan is their home, Japanese is their mother tongue, and there is no other place to return.

As many as 300 such children are at risk of deportation. Sending children born or raised in Japan to another country where they have no foundation to make a living or separating parents and children would violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child which Japan has ratified. Why must people born and raised in Japan suffer in this way? Is our country so inhumane?

We petition the Japanese government to consider assisting the 300 or so children born to and raised by parents without immigration status as well as their families who are at risk of deportation. We ask that they be granted special residence permits as a humanitarian gesture.

If Japan, which has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, guarantees the “best interests of the child” how many children will be saved?

Japan’s Catholic bishops hope that the nation will become one that complies with international human rights treaties and protects the dignity and rights of all people.

 

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan 

President: Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop of Tokyo
Vice President:Masahiro UMEMURA,Bishop of Yokohama

Man-yo Cardinal MAEDA,Archbishop of Osaka
Michiaki NAKAMURA,Archbishop of Nagasaki
Yoshinao OTSUKA,Bishop of Kyoto
Goro MATSUURA,Bishop of Nagoya
Eijiro SUWA,Bishop of Takamatsu
Taiji KATSUYA,Bishop of Sapporo
Mitsuru SHIRAHAMA,Bishop of Hiroshima
Wayne BERNDT,Bishop of Naha
Josep ABELLA,Bishop of Fukuoka
Michiaki YAMANOUCHI,Bishop of Saitama
Hiroaki NAKANO,Bishop of Kagoshima
Daisuke NARUI,Bishop of Niigata
Edgar GACUTAN, Bishop of Sendai
Toshihiro SAKAI,Auxiliary Bishop of Osaka
Shinzo MORIYAMA, Bishop of Oita