Our day began at 9:15AM. For the few late-starters in the group such as myself, it meant either grabbing an apple or unfortunately missing out on breakfast. We boarded the JR line to Yotsuya and took a brief walk to Sophia University.
Once there, we were greeted by our guest lecturer, Professor David Slater. Professor Slater is a socio-cultural anthropologist who, among many other projects, is working on connecting with and supporting asylum-seekers in Japan.
The first part of his presentation laid out the social and political landscape of Japan as it pertains to their immigration policy. In short, the policy is extremely stringent, resulting in one of the lowest refugee acceptance rates in the world. Of course, the immediate question that came to mind was why this was the case. Professor Slater proposed a few explanations, but among them what stood out most to me was his allegorical take on “trash”.
In a poll taken by the general Japanese population, people were asked their position on whether they supported the extant immigration policies. In the early 2000s, the number of people satisfied with the extant policies was around 60%. This statistic was shocking. When asked why, the survey-takers would respond that it was because foreigners did not know how to sort the trash. We laughed in confusion, but Professor Slater was dead serious. He went on to explain that it really wasn’t about the trash; it was indicative of the reticence Japanese had for foreigners due to their stark cultural differences and the fear of one’s culture clashing with another. There were also fears that foreigners would drive out local businesses, increase crime rates, or were applying for refugee status to exploit Japan's resources.
It is important to note that while these were the recorded attitudes at the time, a more recent poll done in 2020 shows that the public opinion on Japan’s immigration policies has shifted drastically in favor of more refugee assistance. Then the next natural question came: if popular opinion was now in support of asylum seekers, what was the issue? The issue lied in the de facto treatment of refugee applicants.
While the UNHCR boasts its support for refugee applicants, our discussion with students at Sophia University’s Refugee Support Group (SRSG) revealed that the reality couldn’t be further from such claims. SRSG’s missions is to not only support asylum seekers, but to also share their stories in the most authentic way possible.
A poignant interview with an asylum seeker from Cameroon revealed to me the significance of memory in our study of political movements and injustices. During the interview, he characterized his memories as a burden, that if he hung onto to them, he would have gone mad. I was struck by this, as I never thought about having memories, aspirations, and time to contemplate as luxuries. But as he pointed out, when one is held in a detention center indefinitely and every day one risks deportation, contemplation only leads to despair and insanity.
We closed out our day by having lunch with the Professor and student leaders from SRSG. I ordered the University’s “capricious meal”. As the name suggests, it was a mosaic of experiences. You had in one corner, a cold spaghetti salad. In another, a lightly dressed salad. But dominating the plate was this steaming patty draped over by a tomato sauce all over some steamed rice. With such a diverse landscape, it was hard to tell how to move forward.
(Click here to watch a video recap of our day :D)
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