I spent 6 weeks in Japan reporting on a thing that doesn’t get much attention: The thousands of asylum seekers from across the world who fly into Tokyo. Almost none win legal refugee status. Many get detained. And so I went to find out why, and what it means. #RefugeesInJapan 1/?
This week, @WNYC & @Gothamist launch an audio series detailing what I learned. Japan’s immigration issues parallel those in the U.S., because this is a global phenomenon: We’re in an age of mass worldwide displacement, and the systems we have to deal with that are obsolete. 2/?
Japan, the U.S. & 143 nations signed the U.N. refugee accords, but international law no longer protects asylum seekers fleeing for new reasons: Climate change, sexual violence, ethnic strife, police corruption, poverty. Many are dismissed as mere economic migrants. 3/?
In part 1, we meet Massamba Mangala, who fled persecution in the Democratic Republic of Congo & ended up in Tokyo. Refugees today aren’t just walking across borders--they’re flying into airports, asking for protection, facing tough asylum laws. Listen:gothamist.com/news/unsettled…… 4/
Part 2 of my audio series starts with...TOILETS. If you’ve been to Japan, you know why. For #RefugeesInJapan, assimilation means taking language classes, learning intricate trash disposal rules...and falling in love with Japanese bathrooms. Listen here: gothamist.com/news/unsettled… 5/
Meet Rose in Part 2. A teacher, she fled violence in Cameroon to the only country she could get a visa: Japan. Now, she’s applying for asylum & staving off loneliness. Stay tuned to the end of the story, where we witness a powerful moment with her and her 1st Japanese friend. 6/ 
Why did Japan admit just 42 asylum seekers last year, out of 10,000+ applicants? Some Japanese say you can’t just move there & become Japanese. But Nahed, who fled Tunisia because of discrimination she faced as a gay woman, explains in Part 2 that she already feels at home. 7/
I visited a high school near the Fukishima disaster. The area is depopulated, with just 2 kids left on the team for kendo, an old martial art. And that’s not the only sign of change: Foreigners are doing clean-up work, & locals fear an immigrant crime wave that has yet to come.8/
Part 3 of our series on #RefugeesInJapan is all about detention. Just like in the U.S., most asylum seekers who fly into Tokyo are detained while their cases are adjudicated. They can be locked up for years. Listen to #3 here: #InternationalMigrantsDay 9/ gothamist.com/news/unsettled…
Let's ruminate on birds, who fly across borders without papers & without getting detained. Htut Zaw Min, a Rohingya refugee detained when he fled to Japan from Myanmar, lets birds live -- cageless -- in his office. “It’s my obligation to help them.” 10/ gothamist.com/news/unsettled…
Just like in NY & NJ, volunteers in Japan visit with detained asylum seekers. Through glass in a visitation room, I met a woman named Lupa, who fled Uganda due to persecution for being Muslim. Afterward, I talked to one of Lupa's regular visitors, Rosa Barbaran, about her. 11/
Detaining asylum seekers isn’t just an American thing. In Japan, detention is less penal--detainees wear street clothes & kids aren’t locked up. But in both nations, detention means family separation, hunger strikes, suicides. #InternationalMigrantsDay 12/ gothamist.com/news/unsettled…
