Dear SSJ-forum members,

 

For those interested in Japan's asylum policymaking, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of my most recent journal articles.

Scholarly analyses of Japan's asylum policy that are published in highly ranked international journals remain a rare occurrence.

I hope these contributions may be of some interest.

 

1. ' "Refugees have power and strength": how refugee agency influenced asylum policy process in Japan', published on Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS) in October 2025

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2575009  

This article explicates exactly how refugees' agency influenced Japan's asylum policies that structure their life choices and everyday opportunities. Drawing on three empirical cases, the article demonstrates that, despite Japan's restrictive, government-controlled asylum regime, the independent and deliberate actions of refugees caused ideational change among key policymakers. These ideational shifts were subsequently translated into institutional, regulatory, and operational changes in Japan's refugee integration and resettlement policies at critical moments over the past five decades.

 

1. "When the best is the enemy of the good: the ironic negotiation process of Japan's controversial asylum amendment bill", published on Journal of Refugee Studies (JRS) in November 2025

https://academic.oup.com/jrs/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jrs/feaf072/8327052?redirectedFrom=fulltext

This field reflection article unpacks the political dynamics that led to the passage of the highly controversial amendment to Japan's Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (ICRRA) in June 2023. Based on my involvement in the legislative negotiations as an independent expert witness before the Japanese Diet, the article illustrates how a realistic prospect of bipartisan compromise and substantive revisions to the bill was ultimately blocked by a small number of pro-human-rights politicians and influential activists who rejected any compromise. This outcome inadvertently facilitated the passage of the problematic government-sponsored bill, to the detriment of the rights and safety of vulnerable irregular migrants in Japan.

 

 

Please feel free to share these articles with colleagues or others who may be interested in the subject matter.

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

Naoko

 

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Naoko Hashimoto-Scalise (MSt, LLM, PhD)

Associate Professor

Department of Politics & International Studies

International Christian University, Tokyo

Email: naokoh@kg8.so-net.ne.jp

 

Research Affiliate, Refugee Law Initiative, Univ of London

 

Refugee Examination/Adjudication Counselor, Ministry of Justice, Japan

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