SAITAMA -- "I was disappointed. Lots of families have been granted residency, but not us," said a downcast-looking 17-year-old Kurdish high school student from Turkey, who is applying for refugee status in Japan. He spoke fluent Japanese and was memorizing a handout for an upcoming school test. But he has no idea how long he can continue his studies here.

There are children of foreign nationality who were born and raised in Japan but are living under the threat of deportation because they lack valid residency due to their parents' actions. Two summers ago, the Japanese government announced a relief measure to allow such children to stay in Japan at the justice minister's discretion. However, some children have slipped through the cracks.

The measure was announced in August 2023 by then Justice Minister Ken Saito, who stated, "For those children who wish to live in Japan, special residency permits will be issued after considering their ties to Japanese society." It was a ray of hope for foreign families who had lost their residency status.

The one-time relief measure granted "special residency permits" to children whose deportation had been decided because of their parents' status, and applied the same relief to their parents, thus allowing them to stay in Japan.

For years, Japan did not forcibly deport foreign nationals applying for refugee status in principle to avoid the risk of them being persecuted upon returning to their respective countries -- a policy based on the United Nations' Refugee Convention. But Japan's refugee recognition rate has remained low. This has resulted in an increase in individuals who cannot get refugee status but have also not been deported, leaving them to build a life in Japan while in this prolonged limbo.

At the same time, there have also been cases where people have used refugee applications to avoid deportation. A 2023 revision to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, aimed to address this situation, made it possible for the government to deport individuals after their third refugee application.

However, under the revised law, innocent children who had no choice about coming to Japan and have since grown up in the country's education system and culture may also face deportation. Some of these children don't properly understand their parents' native language and culture, and would likely face a difficult life if deported.

Thus the government decided to issue special residency permits to children meeting certain conditions: they are minors, born in Japan; deportation orders have been issued against them; they attend Japanese schools; and their parents have no serious criminal or other unacceptable record such as having illegally entered Japan. In such cases, the special permits were also issued to their families.

According to the Immigration Services Agency, about 260 children were considered for this special measure, and 212 of them (from 140 households) were granted special residency permits. One lawyer familiar with immigration issues described the significant number of permits as groundbreaking. But there are children who were not included among the 260 cases cited by the government.

The 17-year-old Kurdish high school student is the first son of a family of six. His father came to Japan in the 1990s, and his mother followed in 2014, bringing over him and his siblings. The family lost their residency status while repeatedly applying for refugee recognition, and they are currently living under "provisional release," exempting them from detention under certain conditions. But provisional release means they are not permitted to work and they can't join the national health insurance program.

The student's 9-year-old sister, the third daughter in the family, was born in Japan and attends an elementary school, raising the family's hopes that special residency permits would be issued, but they were excluded from the relief measure. The reason was that the 9-year-old had not been issued a "deportation order," only a "detention order" requiring she be held in an immigration facility. Detention orders are issued at the beginning of deportation procedures, and there is a possibility that a deportation order could be issued. The high school student is unhappy about the timing of the decision not to grant the family the permits.

"Would we have been granted residency if my sister had got a deportation order? That's unfair," he said.

The deportation order hanging over the student's father means he could be deported anytime. "My father has a mental illness, and we studied in Japanese schools," the teen said. "My dad can't return to Turkey alone, and I can't live in Turkey either."

His classmates are planning their futures, going on to higher education or finding jobs, but he can't join them. "I can't work because I don't have a residency status," he lamented. "I don't even know if I can go to university. I can't have any dreams."

A mother from another family applying for refugee status who have been excluded from the relief measure said of her second daughter, "What difference does it make that we came when she was 5 months old?" The family arrived in Japan from the Middle East in 2016. Now aged 8, the daughter attends an elementary school, while her 14-year-old sister goes to junior high school. But neither of them was born in Japan, and a deportation order has not been issued against the younger of the two, meaning they don't meet the criteria.

The older daughter, who struggles with reading and writing in her native language, was upset. "Even if they tell me to go home, it's difficult for me. I still go to school and join in club activities even though I've had bad experiences like discrimination against me," she said.

Japan struggles to draw the line

At the same time, the government is believed to have struggled to set conditions. Faced with the difficulty of providing unconditional relief, the government evaluated the children's level of integration into Japan, considering factors like being "born in Japan" and "attending school." Saito explained, "We can't conclude in a single sweep that this is the way it should be."

An Immigration Services Agency official told the Mainichi Shimbun, "People in cases where only a detention order has been issued are still being processed, and there is a possibility that they will not be deported. Additionally, even in cases where the parents have had circumstances that couldn't be overlooked and would not normally be given special permission to stay, we've comprehensively considered individual situations, investigating whether there were guardians other than the parents, for example."

Lawyer Hidefumi Okawa, who is familiar with immigration practices, commented, "The latest measure to protect children's interests is commendable. It's necessary to draw a clear line so people don't just think, 'If I give birth to a child (in Japan), we'll be granted residency,' and I believe immigration authorities faced a difficult decision. But there's the lingering regret that they could have expanded the scope a bit more. How they handle the children left out will be an issue for the future."

Families excluded from the relief measure are not entirely without options. In June 2024, the guidelines for special residency permits were revised, allowing those facing detention orders to apply for the same permit. The revised guidelines clearly state that it is necessary to protect children's interests. And even if deportation is decided, there are still ways to seek residency through reexamination of their cases or legal action.

Nevertheless, for the time being, those excluded from the relief measure face disappointment and anxiety about their futures. The mother from the Middle East lamented, "The children have done nothing wrong."

In Japan, these children remain standing at a crossroads.

(Japanese original by Takuro Tahara, Saitama Bureau)