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apfseditor 
On October 28, 2017, a children-only meeting was held at Itabashi City Cultural Hall as the second part of the "Family Together!" campaign, with 11 children seeking special residence permission and their supporters participating. This was made possible in response to a strong request made by those seeking special residence permission at the campaign's kickoff event held last month to "create a place for children to talk alone." The children shared their thoughts mainly about their relationships with their families, school life, future careers, and employment, and there was a lively exchange of opinions.
Family is the closest entity to children, but their feelings towards their families vary depending on the situation. Some children expressed frank opinions such as, "I understand the situation where my parents cannot return to their home country, but sometimes I feel that my parents are responsible for my continued irregular stay," and we could see the conflict in their hearts.
Regarding school life, they all said they were studying hard and having fun with their friends. However, children who belonged to sports clubs said they were worried about getting injured and were unable to play to their heart's content. This is because irregular residents cannot enroll in health insurance, so they cannot easily receive treatment at hospitals. Even if they appear to have a fulfilling school life, the impact of not having a residence status cannot be avoided.
The future challenges for the children are of course their future paths and finding employment. Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to work, so they cannot find employment. Some children spoke of their difficult situation, in which even if they go on to higher education, they cannot even get a part-time job to cover their tuition fees.
In addition, the meeting was also attended by people who had previously been children without resident status, and it was impressive that, based on their own experiences, they gave encouraging words to the children, saying, "Never give up."
At the end of the meeting, the children wrote down their strong desire to obtain residence status and remain in Japan on cards. We hope to submit these cards when negotiating with the Ministry of Justice. We will continue to work hard to ensure that the children's heartfelt wishes come true.