Japan says visa status of 2 fired Myanmar diplomats still valid

I suppose if their visas were revoked, they would apply for asylum, and that would be news here and overseas. This neatly avoids avoids highlighting the asylum system here.

Probably the Japanese government is now trying very hard not to take an active stance on the problem, so the easy way out is just to keep the visas valid, which means there is no problem and Japan do not have to choose who to support in this.

virusrex, I agree that Japan has for far too long coddled the dictators in Rangoon. But good on them at protecting these two diplomats. They must be terrified: going home would be a death sentence.

That’s formally impossible, because their passports are now invalid and therefore the visa , which are based on those former passport data , are also now invalid. Of course they should be helped, no question, but not this way, by the next illegal or gray zone tricks.

They won’t be put in a detention center.

Just wondering what the outcome would be if two Myanmar laborers were to be fired from their jobs on a farm in Ibaraki prefecture, for something not their fault. How would their visa status be viewed here after that?

Whatever the ulterior motives are from a humanitarian perspective I think this is the right move by Japan. I hope the families of these two are OK.

@Sven - You correctly point out the issue with the passports and I do understand your point. However I believe the cancellatoin of their passports makes these two individuals officially refugees by definition and I believe there is no illegality to what Japan is doing in accordance with International Law.

@Sven and Tokyo-Engr - There may be differences for diplomats, but in general your residence in Japan is not dependent on your home nation's passport status. Japan is not doing anything irregular in keeping their visa status intact; from Japan's perspective they have done nothing that would justify visa cancellation.

if these two apply for refugee status in Japan, they will be detained in very rough conditions on the immigration center.

or even die on detention.

@Thon - I never even thought to consider my residence status here as decoupled from the validity of my passport and what you write here makes sense. I guess it would be a matter of what happens when renewal time comes around where I believe they need the passport to process renewal. I am a Permanent Resident and I think (cannot remember) that when I renewed my Residence Card a couple of years ago I had to bring my Passport.

The US allows entry with expired passports under several conditions. In Japan, foreigners must carry either a valid alien registration card, or have valid vis in their passport.

At the same time, if you were to call back immigration 3-4 times, you would likely get a different answer 3-4 times.

@Tokyo-Engr - correct; your residency status in Japan is not connected to your home country's passport. You can still renew your status without one; you need to have your Residence Card.

It would be terrifying if your residency were dependent on having a valid passport in your home country; if so any tyrannical government could instantly have any of its nationals turned into illegal immigrants in Japan simply by nullifying their passports (which have always been the property of the issuing government) and then telling Japan that they're illegal immigrants and must be detained and deported back to said tyrannical country. Japan rightly does not allow such things to affect their status in Japan.