English 
Japanese 
Spanish 
French 
Bengali 
Myanmar 
Nepali 
Tagalog 
Urdu 
Thai 
Persian 
apfseditor 
On September 10, 2017, a kickoff symposium for the "Families Together!" campaign was held at the Itabashi City Cultural Center, with approximately 30 people seeking special residence permission in attendance.
In response to those on provisional release, immigration bureaus tend to grant zainokuchi status to children who receive public education in Japan for a long period of time, and encourage their parents to return to their home countries. There are also cases where foreigners are encouraged to return to their home countries even if they have a Japanese spouse. However, there is no guarantee that the foreigner will be able to return to Japan after returning to their home country. This method of tearing apart families is wrong from an international perspective, such as respecting the "best interests" of the child in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and respecting family life in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (both treaties have been ratified by Japan).
That is why APFS has launched the "Family Together!" campaign so that families can obtain residence permits together and continue to reside in Japan, without being torn apart.
At this kick-off symposium, lawyer Koichi Kodama spoke based on precedents from the European Court of Human Rights. He pointed out that in Europe, even if a foreigner is an irregular resident, their "family life" is respected, and that the European Court of Human Rights has found the deportation orders issued by European governments to be illegal. He emphasized that it is not wrong for APFS members and their families to seek Zaitoku status, and that it is the immigration authorities that are wrong, even from an international perspective.
After that, the people involved and APFS staff came up with ideas for activities to be carried out in this campaign, and various proposals were made, such as negotiations with the Ministry of Justice, proposals to the Immigration Control Policy Council, a project to convey our voices, a parade, children-only meetings, posting on social media, etc. Finally, the symposium closed with each participant sharing their passionate thoughts for the future.
Based on the ideas presented on this day, we will develop the "Family Together!" campaign. We will report on future developments on this website.