We have launched the "Let's do it together as a family!" campaign.

On September 10, 2017, a kickoff symposium for the "Together as a Family!" campaign was held at the Itabashi Ward Cultural Center, with approximately 30 people, including those seeking special permission to stay in Japan, participating.

In dealing with those granted provisional release by immigration authorities, there is a tendency to grant special status to children who will receive long-term public education in Japan, while encouraging the parents to return to their home country. In some cases, even those with Japanese spouses are encouraged to return to their home country. However, there is no guarantee that the foreigner will be able to return to Japan after returning home. This method of tearing families apart is wrong from an international perspective, as it violates the respect for the "best interests" of the child as stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the respect for family life as stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (both conventions have been ratified by Japan).
Therefore, APFS launched the "Family Together!" campaign to ensure that families are not torn apart, but can obtain residence permits together and continue to reside in Japan.

At this kickoff symposium, lawyer Koichi Kodama gave a presentation based on precedents from the European Court of Human Rights. He pointed out that in Europe, even foreigners who are illegally residing in the country have their "family lives" respected, and that deportation orders issued by European governments have been deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights. He emphasized that it is not wrong for APFS members and their families to seek special status for their families, and that from an international perspective, it is the immigration authorities who are in the wrong.
Following this, participants, including those directly affected and APFS staff, brainstormed ideas for activities to be undertaken as part of this campaign. Various proposals were put forward, including negotiations with the Ministry of Justice, recommendations to the Immigration Policy Roundtable, a project to convey our voices, a parade, meetings for children only, and dissemination of information on social media. Finally, each participant shared their passionate thoughts for the future, and the symposium came to a close.

Based on the proposals presented today, we will be launching the "Let's Get Together as a Family!" campaign. We will report further developments on this website and other platforms.