News Article
According to the Sankei Shimbun, “Japanese government considers crackdown on granting residence permits to a Russian national who is anti-Putin regime,” 2024/04/25(written in Japanese), “Japanese government granted a “special permission to stay” in mid-March to a Russian man who criticizes Russia’s Putin regime and seeking refugee status before the invasion of Ukraine began, which allows him to stay in the country on an exceptional basis at the discretion of the Minister of Justice. This was revealed by the man himself and others involved. It is unusual for Russians who apply for refugee status to be granted a residence permit. ”
From the Immigration Agency announcement “Number of recognized refugees in 2023”
Just on the 26th of last month, the Immigration Services Agency announced the number of people recognized as refugees in 2023.
The article states that “It is unusual for Russians who apply for refugee recognition to be granted a residence permit,”. According to the above, it appears that Russians make up a small percentage of refugee recognition applications.
Refugee eligibility
The Russian national had originally applied for refugee status, but although he was denied recognition, he was granted special residence permission for humanitarian reasons.
The article continues below.
“In Russia, the government has been thoroughly suppressing dissident citizens since the invasion of Ukraine, and it is possible that the Japanese government took this situation into account. ” he emphasized. If he returned to Russia, he said, ”he would be put in prison or sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.” ”
As stated in my blog post, “Regarding cases recognized as refugees, etc.,” the definition of a refugee is “a person who is outside the country of his nationality and is ineligible for the protection of that country because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
It seems that the Russian national in question naturally falls under the category of refugee.
Judgment steps by the Immigration Bureau
From the same post, I have reproduced the Immigration Agency’s decision-making steps below, based on my own interpretation from “cases in which a person has been recognized as a refugee, etc.”
- Based on the submitted materials, whether there is a high possibility that the applicant will return to his or her home country and face persecution.
- If YES, is it possible that the home government itself supports persecution?
- If YES → Recognized
- If NO → Not recognized as a refugee (but permitted to stay for humanitarian reasons)
- If NO, should the person be granted asylum based on humanitarian considerations (such as being involved in a conflict rather than persecution)?
- If YES → Not recognized as a refugee (but permitted to stay for humanitarian reasons)
- If NO → Not recognized as a refugee (request for review, detention, deportation procedures including provisional release)
- If YES, is it possible that the home government itself supports persecution?
In this case, it concluded in the red area above.
Summary
Whether a refugee application is recognized is a matter of consideration toward the other country in diplomatic relations. If they were recognized as refugees, Japanese government would be publicly declaring that the Russian government was persecuting them, so I think they were granted special permission to stay, not refugee in order to avoid the diplomatic issue.