More than two hundred foreign minors and their family members who did not possess residency status and could face deportation received special permission to stay in Japan, the Immigration Agency said.
There have been growing calls for Japan to look into considering foreign children, many of whom speak only Japanese. As a consequence, the humanitarian measure was applied at the discretion of the justice minister to minors under the age of 18 who were born and attend school in Japan and have parents without criminal records.
As of 10 June, when the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act came into force, 263 children did not have visas and were at risk of deportation. Of the 212 minors, 155 obtained student visas, 29 received visas to participate in certain activities and 23 received long-term resident visas.
Of the children who had not received special permission, 11 returned to their countries of origin of their own volition and 40 did not receive it for a variety of reasons, including because their parents entered Japan illegally and were not of school age.
The measure, covering 183 members of their families as well, came to be described as a one-time measure by then-Justice Minister Ken Saito. However, the Immigration Services Agency said it might impose emergency measures in future cases. The revised legislation to enable individuals to apply for special authorisation, whereas previously this was only possible after deportation proceedings had been initiated.
