Japan has the third-largest economy on the planet, but in the last five years, has granted refugee status to fewer than 100 people.
In 2013, just six applications were approved. Eleven people made the cut the following year, followed by 27 in 2015. Out of the 10,901 people who applied in 2016, just 28 were granted refugee status in Japan. The number of applications jumped to more than 19,000 the next year. Only 20 were accepted.
While headlines around the world have slammed these numbers, they are actually misleading Dirk Hebecker, head of the Tokyo branch of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Business Insider. Last year's 20 approvals didn't come from the 19,000-odd applications, but were people who had applied years earlier, a byproduct of the slow-moving vetting process.
"Excuse my blunt reaction on this, but it's very stupid to put these two figures together. It's well-known how long it takes in Japan and many other countries to actually have a result," Hebecker said, referring to the process of seeking asylum.
But despite a lack of correlation, the raw numbers tell a hard truth: Japan is one of the world's least-welcoming countries for refugees.
But key to Japan's policy is its focus instead on UNHCR donations — it is the fourth-largest government donor. The country also employs a unique definition of a refugee.
Despite signing onto the 1951 Refugee Convention, Japan only recognizes refugees who are individually targeted and persecuted, regardless of whether they belong to a persecuted minority, or are fleeing war or conflict.
Saburo Takizawa, who previously held Hebecker's role and is now the chairman of the nonprofit Japan for UNHCR, told Business Insider it's a definition that excludes most modern refugees, abiding "by the letter, if not spirit," of the convention.
"What the government is doing is very much abusive of the human-rights convention," Amini said.
And there's little popular push to change this. Though the experts who spoke with Business Insider were divided on how open citizens are to refugees — as are various polls — they all agreed that Japan is a homogeneous country and, generally, people would like for it to stay that way.
There's a persistent fear in Japan that adopting a more liberal refugee program could be the first step to one day being forced to accept a large-scale influx of refugees fleeing North Korea.
And the country's leaders and media haven't helped.
Editorials have warned that there could be a dangerous "flood" of North Korean refugees; that armed North Koreans might disguise themselves as refugees and target military bases or nuclear power plants; and that North Koreans have a penchant for bribery, stimulant drugs, and a lack of civil interactions that could "create turmoil" in society.
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-accepts-so-few-refugees-2018-4
