Last updated: December 2007

Japan Detention Profile

Detention Infrastructure and Practices

Undocumented foreigners who are, or are suspected of being, in violation of the ICRRA are detained in an assortment of detention facilities. These include immigration detention centers, detention houses, Landing Prevention Facilities (LPFs), and Airport Rest Houses (ARHs). Immigration centers and detention houses are designed to detain those apprehended inside the country; Landing Prevention Facilities and Airport Rest Houses are designed to detain foreigners who are denied entry to Japan upon arrival at a port of entry. “Immigration center” denotes detention centers dedicated for migrants who must be detained for long periods of time (6 months or more) (CAT Network Japan 2007; Yagishita 2007). Detention houses are facilities in regional immigration bureaus used to detain persons who are subject to enforcement of written detention orders (ICRRA Article 61-6). Unlike immigration detention centers, detention houses are designated to hold immigration detainees only for short periods of time. The law stipulates that the period of detention under detention order is limited to 60 days (the original time limit is 30 days, but the law allows an additional 30 days if it is deemed necessary by a supervising immigration inspector) (ICRRA Article 41 and Dean 2006). All detention facilities are under the authority of the Immigration Bureau, but LPFs and ARHs are operated by private security firms (Amnesty International 2002 and Dean 2006).

 

The Immigration Bureau, which is part of the Ministry of Justice, maintains over a dozen detention houses and three immigration detention centers, with a total capacity of 3,410 people (as of 2005). The detention houses are located at the regional immigration bureaus, district immigration offices, and some branch offices. In an email message to the Global Detention Project, Misaki Yagishita, Refugee coordinator of Amnesty International Japan, said that detention houses can be found in the regional immigration bureaus of Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Chubu Airport, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Takamatsu, Fukuoka and Naha. Shimonoseki branch office (Hiroshima) and Kagoshima branch office (Fukuoka) also have detention houses (Yagishita 2007). Immigration detention centers can be found in the prefectures of Ibaragi, Osaka, and Omura prefectures: Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku (Ibaragi), Nishi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ibaraki City (Osaka), and Omura Immigration Center in Omura (Nagasaki) (Immigration Bureau 2006). There is little available information on the locations or capacities of the LPFs and ARHs, except for the LPF located in Narita Airport and Kansai Airport. According to Amnesty International, the Narita Airport LPF houses at least two detention facilities, with one facility having an official capacity of five detainees (Amnesty International 2002).

 

According to the U.S. State Department (2004), Japanese government records show that in 2003 the country detained a total of 523,617 in its immigration detention facilities. This seems a very high number given the limited capacity of the country's detention infrastructure (3,410 as of 2005) and the reported numbers of detainees at certain sites. For example, according to the Japanese Ministry of Justice (2006), during December 2005, a total of 818 people were detained in the country's three main migrant detention centers: 539 in Higashi-Nihon, 197 in Nishi-Nihon, and 82 in Omura.

 

In 2005, according to the Japanese Immigration Bureau, there were a total of 33,520 deportation orders and 33,192 deportees (Immigration Bureau 2006). Article 52 of the ICRRA stipulates that a person subject to deportation “may” be detained in the case that he or she cannot be deported immediately. According to human rights groups, in practice, people given a deportation order are detained until they are deported (Amnesty International 2002; Dean 2006). The Japanese government periodic report under the article 40 paragraph 1(b) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also stipulates that, “Under the deportation procedures of Japan, the entire process of the procedures, in principle, must be followed with the person held in detention” (Government of Japan 2006). While the deportation procedure allows provisional release from detention before deportation, the number of such permissions is very low. In 2005, provisional release was accorded to 769 undocumented foreigners detained under deportation orders (Immigration Bureau 2006).

 

No official statistics are available on the nationalities of immigration detainees. However, statistics of deportation orders provide some indications. In 2005, Chinese accounted for 30 percent of all foreign nationals who were issued written deportation orders, followed by the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. It is important to note that these countries, except Bangladesh, are also the top five overstayers’ countries of origin (Immigration Bureau 2006).

 

The detention and deportation aspects of the law are meant to target undocumented migrants. The ICRRA provides special protection to asylum seekers, refugees, and trafficking victims, excluding them from detention and deportation clauses. However, reports from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have drawn attention to the detention of asylum seekers, refugees, and victims of human trafficking in the immigration detention facilities. Most rejected asylum seekers are detained, including those appealing their asylum rejection (Dean 2006). The government does not provide official figures of the number of asylum seekers and/or rejected asylum seekers who are detained. According to expert medical reports cited in one study (Dean 2006), the East Japan Immigration Center (the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center) held 37 asylum seekers in 2004 and 67 in 2005 for an average of 13 months. According to Japan’s Lawyers’ Network for Refugees, in 2004, there were “50 or more asylum seekers in detention centers across Japan, including those seeking judicial review” (Dean 2006).

 

Asylum seekers have also been detained in LPFs and ARHs. During its visit to the LPF at Narita Airport in 2000, Amnesty International found that “a daily average of some seven persons were detained in the LPF” (Amnesty International 2002). It is estimated that thousands of people are denied entry into Japan (including asylum seekers) and detained in LPFs and ARHs prior to their deportation (Dean 2006). According to one report, “Detention also extends to those whom UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] has mandated but who are seeking judicial review of their refusal by the government” (Dean 2006). Five UNHCR-certified refugees were detained at the end of 2003. The number decreased to three at the end of 2004 (Dean 2006).

 

A report from the NGO Human Rights Watch highlights the detention of victims of human trafficking in Japan. While victims who voluntary surrender can avoid detention prior to deportation, many others who are arrested during police raids are detained and then deported due to their undocumented status (Human Rights Watch 2000). It is difficult to determine the number of victims of human trafficking who are detained in immigration detention facilities. However, the high percentage of undocumented female residents working as bar hostesses and prostitutes indicates a potentially significant number of trafficked women and girls who could be detained by Japanese authorities for violating the Immigration Control Act. “The Japanese Justice Ministry reported that as of January 2002, some of 105,945 women had overstayed their visas and that more than 46 percent of these women were working as bar hostesses and prostitutes” (Cameron 2003). Meanwhile, statistics from the Immigration Bureau reveal that out of 19,703 irregular workers who were female and against whom deportation procedures were carried out in 2005, more than 35 percent were working as hostesses (Immigration Bureau 2006).