The number of foreign residents in Tokyo (2003)

Total: 295,819
http://www.city.yokohama.jp/me/stat/daitoshi/new/h020400.html

Asia:
Korea 86,054
China 103,651
Philippine 24,334
Indonesia 2,231
India 4,927
Turkey 344
Israel 387
Thailand 4,670
Vietnam 1,336
Iran 1,114
Malaysia 3,462
Bangladesh 2,583
Others 9,756

North America:
United States 15,202
Canada 2,846
Others 704

South America:
Brazil 2,818
Peru 690
Others 1,255

Europe:
UK 6,942
Netherlands 373
France 3,892
Germany 2,044
Italy 770
Switzerland 377
Portugal 117
Belgium 276
Denmark 242
Greece 78
Ireland 419
Norway 83
Spain 444
Sweden 523
Russia 1,463
Others 2,270

Africa:2,442

Oceania:
Australia 3,668
New Zealand 771
Others 74

Stateless Residents:187

Very interesting......I suppose most of the African residents are South African?....

Thanks a lot!

datilguy, Id be willing to bet that 95% of Africans in Tokyo are Nigerians. You see them all over the place in locations like Shinjuku and Harajuku, pushing clubs or hip-hop clothing stores. They pretend to be from NYC to add street cred to their sales pitches, but will readily admit to being from Lagos if you call them out on it.

I think imigrant to Japan is one of the solution to decrease population in Japan...

who are these stateless residents?

http://www.debito.org/

^^

T H R O W H I M O U T

:hilarious

I read somewhere that 10% of the marriages in Tokyo include at least one non-Japanese. There have to be many non-Japanese living there if that statistic is reliable. But Tokyo is definitely the most international city in Japan--Nagoya down the line has many fewer foreigners.

I disagree, Bermuda, about Debito. Some of my Japanese friends think he is a freak, but I really respect him and what he is doing. He is doing the unpopular work that can lead to a more just Japanese society.

Interesting that the Chinese population is larger than Koreans. I first thought that Koreans are the largest minority!

I still dont get who these stateless people are.

is it like Terminal where they came to Japan and their country ceased to exist.

I read somewhere that 10% of the marriages in Tokyo include at least one non-Japanese. There have to be many non-Japanese living there if that statistic is reliable. But Tokyo is definitely the most international city in Japan--Nagoya down the line has many fewer foreigners.

I disagree, Bermuda, about Debito. Some of my Japanese friends think he is a freak, but I really respect him and what he is doing. He is doing the unpopular work that can lead to a more just Japanese society.

many non-Japanese dont like him in fact

many non-Japanese dont like him in fact

People who rock the boat are rarely popular. I think he probably goes overboard sometimes, but people like Debito are the ones who instigate change and shine a light on hypocrisy.

What about foreign students..you guys have the data??

it seems Tokyo has a big number of foreign residents who have one way or another considered Tokyo and its prefecture their home.

these foreign residents have somehow enriched the local Tokyo culture to become a global cosmopolitan city for the world

who are these stateless residents?

Osama Bin Laden is stateless.

Oops--double post. See above.

Osama Bin Laden is stateless.

The stateless residents include children born in Japan to undocumented parents (who are not considered Japanese citizens if they are born here), and people who are forbidden to return to their home country, or who would face inhumane living environments in their home country if forced to return, such as homosexuals from most Middle Eastern countries, or Tibetans living in India, for example. Unlike Western countries, Japan has a bad record of not allowing "stateless" people to remain here in Japan.

FEW GET SANCTUARY, BUT NEVER KURDS
Tokyo under fire for deporting refugees

By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Japan has long caught flak for being closed to asylum-seekers, and the deportation this week of two Kurds from Turkey -- despite their U.N. recognition as "mandate refugees" -- has brought the government under a fresh attack.

Ahmet Kazankiran and his son, Ramazan, were deported to Turkey on Tuesday, one day after they were detained when they reported to the immigration office to have their provisional release renewed. Their current situation in Turkey has yet to be confirmed.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has described the deportation as "contrary to Japan's obligations under international law" and said it contradicts the humanitarian aid Japan extends to refugees and disaster survivors abroad.

There are no official figures available yet for the number of people who were granted official refugee status in Japan in 2004, but sources say it was only 16. In 2003, just 26 people were either given refugee status or special residence permits.

No Kurds from Turkey have been given refugee status by the government.

"We have reached a point where we cannot expect the Justice Ministry to take appropriate measures to protect asylum-seekers," said Takeshi Ohashi, one of the lawyers representing the Kazankiran family.

"This is an embarrassing incident, internationally speaking. The Justice Ministry not only ignored the U.N., but challenged and insulted it. This action will no doubt stain Japan's position in the international community."

On Thursday, the Social Democratic Party said that by deporting the two Kurds, "Japan has neglected its duties to cooperate with the UNHCR" as a signatory country of the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

The Justice Ministry argues that the UNHCR's conditions for mandate refugee designation is broader than those in the U.N. convention, which defines refugees as those with "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

According to an Immigration Bureau official, the UNHCR's mandate refugee designation is given to people who may not be defined as refugees but are in need of humanitarian support.

The UNHCR admits it tries to help "persons of concern to UNHCR," who have fled "situations of civil or international wars, situations of massive violations of human rights, as well as stateless persons."

But there is basically no difference between the UNHCR and U.N. convention in their definitions of a refugee, UNHCR senior legal officer Nathalie Karsenty said.

"It is not the question of definition, but how (refugees) are dealt with," she said. "Indeed, we do have a more liberal approach, and what we're calling for is truly humanitarian spirit based on human rights, not immigration concerns."

Karsenty pointed out that Japan also has a similar system of giving special residence permits on humanitarian grounds to those who may not exactly meet the requirements to be called a refugee under the U.N. convention.

"There are ways to provide protection to everybody in need of international protection, be it the convention or other forms of protection," she said.

According to Karsenty, there are currently 25 cases of asylum-seekers with UNHCR mandate refugee status who have not been recognized as refugees by the Japanese government. The cases include the Kazankiran family.

The remaining five member of Kazankiran's family are required to appear before the Immigration Bureau on Monday. Orders for their deportation have also been issued.

Erdal Dogan, another Kurdish asylum-seeker who staged a protest sit-in in front of United Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward last summer with the Kazankirans, is due to renew his provisional release Friday, and the rest of his family on Feb. 10.

Deportation orders for them have also been issued.

"I'm afraid that we will all be deported just like Ahmet and Ramazan," Dogan said. "All of our lives depend on this."

After deporting Kazankiran and his son, a senior Justice Ministry official claimed Japan made the decision to send them back after determining the two did not face persecution in Turkey -- as had been claimed by the family and their supporters.

But the Kazankirans and Dogans have argued that the risk of persecution increased after Japanese officials visited Turkey and cooperated with Turkish authorities to "examine" whether their refugee plea was valid.

Kazankiran's family in Tokyo received a call Wednesday from him, saying he and his son would soon be released after being detained by Turkish authorities upon arrival at Istanbul airport. But the family said they have since not heard from him.

Fumio Azuma, a supporter of the Kazankirans and the Dogans, told reporters that he had been naive to think the Justice Ministry would grant the Kazankirans refugee status based on the UNHCR designation.

"The least they could have done is to have sent them to a third country," Azuma said. "Is that so difficult?"

But the ministry didn't yield.

"How can we send them to a third country when the Justice Ministry and the courts judged that (the Kazankirans) were not refugees?" a ministry official asked.

The Japan Times: Jan. 21, 2005

I think imigrant to Japan is one of the solution to decrease population in Japan...

If you mention about the workers, I don't think so.
Because of this reason, Japanese will invest to another countries and get workers for Japanese fabs in those countries.

This statistics comes from Japanese registration law of foreign people.
But the number from national census usually indicates more larger.

datilguy, Id be willing to bet that 95% of Africans in Tokyo are Nigerians. You see them all over the place in locations like Shinjuku and Harajuku, pushing clubs or hip-hop clothing stores. They pretend to be from NYC to add street cred to their sales pitches, but will readily admit to being from Lagos if you call them out on it.
bwhahaha lol but nigerians are found everywhere(no offence)