16 students
from Ocha No Mizu Women’s university and their professor, M.
Keichi Kumagai visited APFS office on the morning of the 9th of
June.
The time
was short but after Ms. G speech, there was a few questions. The students
showed a good critical sense, and raised very pertinent problems.
Their venue
was very fertile and we hope everybody enjoyed this rare occasion of discussing
the problems related to the situation of the foreign residents in Japan.
After a
brief presentation of APFS itself, the representative M. Kato explained through
the help of statistics and distributions by nationality and type of visas of
entry the global situation of the persons residing in Japan without a proper
visa. Where does the immigration phenomenon from developing countries to Japan
come from? What is the position of the State itself? What are, in a few words,
the immigration policies in Japan? Those were some of the matters that M. Kato
presented. Finally, he talked about the way that APFS had a leading role in the
creation of the Special Permit of Residence.
Then, Ms.
Garcia from the Philippines, coming as a guest speaker, took the time to
explain concretely her present situation. She is currently left without a visa,
and has lots of troubles. Her speech was very emotional, and probably everybody
was moved by her story. If you lose your visa, there is the possibility of
facing a forced deportation, which would mean that her 17 years old son would
have to live by himself.
Everybody
felt sympathy and compassion towards Ms. Garcia, and got a concrete glance at
the kind of trouble that the foreign residents in Japan can face.
It is very
important that many people feel concerned by the activities of our association.
We hope to
be able to set up such occasions again.
