Japan publishes refugee recognition guidelines for first time

TokYO Kyodo Japan unveiled its guidelines on refugee recognition for the first time on Friday after growing calls for greater transparency at home and abroad.

The handbook for immigration officials has cited the possibility of granting refugee status if applicants are deemed to be at risk of persecution at home for identifying as a sexual minority.

The Immigration Services Agency of Japan compiled and published guidelines in response to criticism aimed at Japan for its history of accepting far fewer refugees - numbering just several dozen a year - than European countries and the United States.

An agency official said that the handbook didn't expand the scope of recognition already in use within immigration authorities, and was not meant to increase the number of people granted refugee status. The agency guidelines could help applications be organized more efficiently, leading to swifter granting of refugee status, according to the official.

In 2021, Japan granted refugee status to 74 people, a record high since it started granting such status in 1982. The number is much less than in European countries and the United States, where over 10,000 refugees are taken in annually.

The handbook, which is used to decide whether refugee status criteria are met, was compiled from precedents and court judgments as well as documents by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and guidelines in other countries.

The 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Japan is a signatory, defines a refugee as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, and obliges member states to give them protection.

The handbook, which could be updated depending on new situations surrounding potential refugees, cites the possibility of persecution in cases where sexual minorities could be targeted with punishment or when women could face genital mutilation in their home countries due to local customs.

It says that even if a single factor detrimental to an asylum seeker doesn't amount to the fear of persecution at home, they could still be eligible for refugee status if multiple disadvantageous situations are taken into account.

The handbook says that the fear of persecution needs not be an abstract danger but a realistic one. It also notes that fear of persecution can't be denied because the asylum seeker is not individually identified by those who would persecute them.

The guidelines were compiled by the agency after an expert panel was appointed by the Justice Ministry in December 2014 and proposed enhancing the transparency and credibility of its refugee recognition process. The UNHCR's view on the issue was taken into account by the agency.