Japan isn't exactly a welcoming country where refugees are concerd. It's criteria for granting refugee status excludes things like war, religious discrimination and ethnic mistreatment. For example refugees from Syria's civil war are classified as economically displaced rather than fleeing an active war zone. Even though countries in Europe and the United States classify them as armed conflict refugees allowing them to legally reside within their borders.
Further the government lives in fear of upsetting the homogeneous status quo which is 98% coming from the Yamato ethnic group the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago with the next largest ethnic group being Chinese.
The justice ministry said it received a record 7,586 refugee applications in 2015, meaning more than 99% of requests were rejected.
Other accepted applicants included six from Afghanistan, three Ethiopians and three Sri Lankans.
The ministry said number of refugees accepted last year was a jump from 11 in 2014 and six in 2013.
Human rights activists, lawyers and migrant communities in Japan have complained for years about harsh treatment by immigration officials and about conditions at detention centers.The U.N. refugee agency says Japan is home to 2,419 refugees, compared to its Group of Seven ally the United States with 267,222 and Turkey, which has 1.8 million refugees.
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