Y-kun, a Filipino national who is illegally residing in Japan - Our Voices Project #3

As part of our ongoing "Family Together!" campaign, we are sharing the voices of people who are illegally residing in Japan.
This time, we're featuring Y-kun, a vocational school student of Filipino nationality.
I am staying in Japan with my mother in an undocumented, irregular status without a valid residence permit.

"I don't have a visa."

I am a Filipino national, born and raised in Japan. I live with my mother, who is also a Filipino national. My mother cannot write Japanese and speaks it brokenly, but she raised me all by herself.
Neither my mother nor I have legal residency status. When I was little, I went to the immigration office with my mother. I didn't know what kind of place it was, but I went along with her and remember how sad and distressed she looked as she spoke with the interviewer. Since I was sixteen, I've been going to the immigration office to renew my provisional release. Apparently, foreigners like me are supposed to be detained, but I've been given special release because I'm attending school. Because of this, I have to renew my provisional release every month. It was only when I was in the same position as my mother that I truly understood the reality. I was born and raised in Japan, yet I felt like a criminal. I'm just trying to live a normal life, but there are so many restrictions, and it's incredibly difficult and painful.
I'm currently being told by immigration to return to the Philippines with my mother. I can only speak Japanese, and if I go to the Philippines, my dreams and the future I envision will be shattered.

There are many foreigners like us who do not have legal residency status. Not all of us are bad people. I want more Japanese people to know about the lives of foreigners like us. We are living our lives to the fullest right now, working hard to obtain legal residency status.