As of 2023, Japan has approximately 70,000 undocumented migrants. Undocumented means these foreigners remain in Japan without the residential statuses stipulated in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. While this is “against the law”, it should be seen as a phenomenon arising from laws being unaligned with a globalized modern society.

In many cases, they are people who have lived for a long time in Japan after coming here to study or work and are unable to return to their home countries after losing their residential statuses, or people—including their children—who are applying for refugee status. I conduct research while listening to these people tell their stories, and I also undertake activities that support them.

Situations faced by high school students who cannot enjoy their youth without proper residential status

Currently, I am focusing on undocumented migrant youth who are high school students. Many of them were born and raised in Japan, graduated from Japanese elementary and junior high schools, and have firmly settled in Japan. As their parents do not have any residential status, they too do not have a proper residential status.

Life is extremely tough for them. People staying on provisional release without a residential status are not allowed to work. This means that their parents do not have work, and the students themselves cannot take on part-time jobs. As elementary and junior high school fall under compulsory education, they can receive financial assistance to attend school.

Upon entering high school, however, they are no longer exempted from paying school fees. They face enormous financial difficulties, including being unable to go on school trips or pay for school meals.

When I interview them, I always ask them, “When did you find out that you do not have a residential status?” Most of them said that they kind of realized when they were in elementary or junior high school. Being in Japan without a residential status means that a person’s human rights are not guaranteed. Therefore, not surprisingly, they are shocked when they come to understand the situation they are in.

As they are treated by the immigration bureau as people who should not be in Japan, they say they thought they must not let other people know they do not have any residential status. They told me that they evade by saying things like “I’ll give the school trip a pass as I am afraid of flying” or “I’m on a diet so I don’t need school meals.”

Now is the time to review systems about whether human rights only apply to nationals

Many of our systems today remain as they were when the modern state was created in the 19th century. Laws and regulations are made based on the assumption that only people of the same nationality live within a country that is defined by national borders. It was only nationals who had their human rights guaranteed, and migrants without nationalities of host countries had limited human rights.

However, times have changed. In this modern age where people move across borders, structural dilemmas are erupting. At the forefront are undocumented migrants. Amid further progress in globalization, it is time to think about how to change social systems. There should be a need to listen to the voices of undocumented migrants.

There are cases where high school students who are undocumented were interviewed by the media and their lack of a residential status was revealed to the people around them. At the same time, it is also a fact that there are increasingly more people offering support due to such exposure. I have seen cases where some received financial support for school fees and went on to further education at universities or professional training colleges.

They take a step forward by telling others about the past they had been hiding. Their bravery and positive attitude give me courage and make me want to support them.

The book I recommend

“Kar (Snow)”
by Orhan Pamuk, Japanese translation by Ryo Miyashita, Hayakawa Publishing Corporation

This is a novel by a Nobel Prize laureate from Turkey. Set in an Islamic society that is unfamiliar to Japanese people, characters from various walks of life appear in the novel, including socialists, Islamic fundamentalists, and pro-Western thinkers, serving as an opportunity to see the world from a different perspective.

Interviewed: November 2023