Liberal Japan

Japan has a notorious record on refugees. You can read up on this here and here.

The list of people who clearly qualify for some kind of refugee status but won’t get it grows each year. We can now add another name to that list: Aung Tin Oo.

Let me explain.

Japan has issued formal statements of concern over the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

Their most recent statement can be found here. It states:

1. Japan is deeply concerned about the continuation of the detention under house arrest of after the extended term of one year ended on May 27.
2. Japan strongly hopes that the Government of Myanmar will activate talks with the international community, release political detainees including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and expeditiously advance a democratization process that includes Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other parties concerned.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar. To make a long story short, that is why she is under the very house arrest that Japan has been vigorously protesting.

So the question is, how does Japan treat local members of the National League for Democracy? In other words, how does Japan support those Myanmar dissidents who escape repression in Myanmar and (without formal approval of the government) wash up on Japanese shores? The answer is that it puts them under detention on suspicion of illegal disembarkation.

Here is the recent Japan Times article on this:

Myanmar activist detained in Japan

NAGOYA (Kyodo) A prodemocracy Myanmar activist in the Japanese arm of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has been detained since March and his supporters are calling for his release.

Aung Tin Oo, 29, an executive member of the Japanese unit of the NLD-Liberated Area, the party’s overseas organization, has been detained by the Nagoya Immigration Bureau on suspicion of illegal disembarkation, the supporters said.

Aung was supposed to head an NLD-LA office in Nagoya, which opened last weekend in his absence. His supporters submitted a petition with more than 1,000 signatures for his provisional release to the immigration bureau last month.

Aung, a sailor, landed in Japan without permission after his ship arrived in Nagoya in May 2001, and has since stayed illegally in Japan doing part-time jobs, the supporters said.

After engaging in activities to promote democracy in Myanmar, Aung was named as the first head of the Nagoya office with seven members.

However, he was detained by authorities at a 24-hour supermarket in Nagoya early on the morning of March 15, they said.

After he was detained, Aung submitted a prepared application for refugee status to the Justice Ministry.

The ministry rejected his request, saying he did not belong to an antigovernment organization and his activities in Japan were not recognized as dangerous by the Myanmar government.

“We cannot comment on individual cases, ” an immigration official said.

… he did not belong to an antigovernment organization and his activities in Japan were not recognized as dangerous by the Myanmar government. Right, like that kind of information is shared with Japanese officials. Give me a break!

Yes, he was staying here illegally. But so are well over 200,000 others. Presumably as the police have kobans stationed everywhere, and know where the overstayers are, they could all be rounded up tomorrow. Instead, only occasional high profiles roundups are carried out to appease xenophobes in Nagatachō. So why, after six years, did the government bother to nab Aung Tin Oo while he was doing some early morning grocery shopping?

Was it an accident?

And what does the the government intend to do now? Hold him in detention indefinitely? Send him back to Myanmar where he can be appropriately handled.

We’ll see.