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Text File | 1994-05-02 | 18KB | 331 lines

<text> <title> Japan </title> <article> <hdr> Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 Asia Watch: Japan </hdr> <body> Human Rights Developments Asia Watch in 1991 directed its attention in Japan to the treatment of Chinese dissidents and the use of Japanese economic and diplomatic leverage to promote human rights in Asia. Our primary concern continued to be Chinese dissidents who were in Japan at the time of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing or who later fled to Japan. (According to Japan's Justice Ministry, 2,844 Chinese have arrived illegally in Japan since the Beijing massacre. Of these, 2,381 have been deported. In addition, it is estimated that there were approximately 15,000 Chinese students studying in Japan at the time of the massacre. Another 48,000 were in language schools--the largest number in any country outside of China.) Although the Japanese government promised at a 1989 summit of industrial nations in Paris that it would offer refuge to dissidents who feared persecution if returned to China, it has not granted political asylum to a single Chinese dissident. Instead of offering blanket coverage to those wishing to review their visas, the government adopted a case-by-case approach and left it to immigration officials to make the decisions. With one prominent exception, the government did display more flexibility in dealing with Chinese visa applicants whose cases became the subject of international publicity and domestic pressure. The exception was the case of Lin Guizhen, a democracy activist from Fujian Province who entered Japan in September 1989 and was forcibly repatriated to Shanghai on August 14, 1991. The deportation came on the last day of a high-profile visit to Beijing by then-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. Lin was sent back despite two lawsuits pending in the Japanese courts related to her claim for refugee status. Sixty-one other Chinese deemed to be "economic refugees" were deported simultaneously. Lin claimed that she had participated in pro-democracy demonstrations in Fukishu city in June 1989 and then fled from China in a boat with 230 other Chinese. Upon arrival in Japan, she applied for political asylum. Her application was rejected in June 1990 as was a subsequent appeal, despite her lawyers' argument that she was in danger of persecution in China. She was deported after the Supreme Court upheld a lower-court decision, although further appeals were still pending. (Lin was deported after a Supreme Court ruling on October 9, 1990 upholding a lower-court interlocutory decision rejecting her appeal for suspension of deportation. However, at the time of her expulsion, two lawsuits were still pending at the district-court level, one seeking cancellation of the deportation order and the other pressing her application for refugee status. Her attorneys have indicated that they intend to pursue the matter in her absence.) Lin's sudden deportation provoked an international outcry. (For example, The New York Times gave her deportation prominent coverage. Steven Weisman, "Japan Deports Chinese but Others Are Hopeful," August 18, 1991.) Japanese civil liberties groups complained to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that Japan's action had violated the 1951 Refugee Convention, which Japan ratified in 1982. (Under Article 35 of the convention, Japan is obligated to cooperate with the UNHCR. In 1987, the Executive Committee of the UNHCR recommended that an applicant "should be permitted to remain in the country while an appeal to a higher administrative authority or to the courts is pending." The UNHCR's role in the case is unclear. Justice Ministry officials say that the UNHCR interviewed Lin and found her unqualified for refugee status. But in a Tokyo news conference on August 20, Sadako Ogata, the UNHCR commissioner, expressed concern about the precipitous action taken by the immigration authorities.) Asia Watch protested the deportation and urged Japan to monitor Lin's welfare after her return to China. Japanese authorities have cited assurances from Chinese officials given to their Embassy in Beijing. A letter to Asia Watch from the Japanese Embassy in Washington stated that the Chinese government had reported that "soon after Lin arrived in Shanghai, she was taken by her family and she is now living peacefully with them." The same letter also declared, "No legal action against her has been taken by the Chinese government." Similar statements have appeared in the Japanese press. However, it has been impossible to verify China's assurances independently. The Japanese government has indicated that it intends to monitor Lin's status periodically, but there is no indication that it has access to her. In June 1991, Japan shifted its method of dealing with a number of cases of Chinese living in the country prior to June 1989. For the first time, a provision in the immigration law under which a person may be granted legal residency status "by reason of special circumstances" was applied to Chinese dissidents. (Under the so-called "designated activities" clause of the Immigration Control and Refugee Act of 1990, residency status may be granted "due to special circumstances that have developed in the country of his nationality." The grounds on which this status is given are extremely vague. The provision effectively allows immigration officials to grant extended visas to certain individuals without categorizing them as political refugees or extending blanket visas to entire categories of people.) The visa is given for six months at a time and is renewable; although it does not specifically permit the person to work, those who obtain it generally have been allowed to seek employment. The government granted this status to Chen Shisen, a student living in Tokyo since September 1987 who feared persecution in China because of his pro-democracy activities as a member of the Japanese branch of the Federation for Democracy in China (FDC). On October 9, 1991, a visa was granted under the same provision to Zhao Nan, a prominent Chinese dissident who had been denied political asylum on March 7. Zhao asserted that he was at risk of "brutal punishment" if returned to China against his will, both because he was president of the FDC chapter in Japan and because he had been politically active in China beginning in 1978. Following the arrest of Democracy Wall activist Wei Jingsheng in 1979, Zhao had edited Wei's pro-democracy journal. For his peaceful political activities, Zhao was imprisoned without trial in a Chinese labor camp from 1982 to 1984. He came to Japan in September 1988 and had his visa renewed three times before a renewal request was denied and immigration authorities ordered him to leave the country late in 1990. Despite his well-founded fear of persecution, the Justice Ministry refused to grant him political asylum on narrow technical grounds, asserting that he had missed a filing deadline. A lawsuit filed in June 1991 challenging the decision is still pending. A lawyers group working on behalf of Chinese students issued a public appeal following the decision in Chen's case, urging the government to grant the same status to at least twenty-two other dissidents they represented. The lawyers had lobbied the Justice Ministry and petitioned publicly on the students' behalf, and the government's action on Chen was viewed in part as a response to the pressure they had generated. (The Lawyers' Group for Protecting Human Rights of Chinese Students is headed by Hideo Fuji, a former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.) By the end of November, fourteen people had been given such status. It is unclear whether this special status will be extended indefinitely and how broadly it will be applied. This uncertainty is a product of the Japanese government's conflicting desires to avoid both offending the Chinese government by granting for