B
4.
CONFIDENTIAL
However the
The Japanese Cabinet agreed in 1980 the categories
and criteria at present used in the selection of
Indo-Chinese refugees for resettlement in Japan. They do not appear on paper to be unduly restrictive as regards the definition of a connection with Japan by means of family
ties with Japanese residents or nationals, or employment
with Japanese individuals or institutions.
requirement for "Job experience which may facilitate his
employment in Japan" excludes many refugees who would
otherwise qualify, since many of the refugees now
in Hong
Kong have a background of employment in Vietnam's technologically backward agricultural sector. background does not facilitate employment in any advanced
society; and this requirement is not one which,
we know, any other resettlement country uses.
reason why it should be invoked by Japan
countries perceive no need for it.
5.
Japanese
bureaucratic
-
SO
Such a
far as
We see no
when other
which
However, as is the case with other aspects of
practice it is the way in which
apparently innocuous regulations are interpreted
causes problems. Many of the terms used are vague, and
leave officials wide discretion to decide whether or not a
refugee qualifies eg "a considerable period", "being able to adapt to Japanese society", "of good character", "dependants" (nuclear or extended family?), "job experience which may facilitate his employment in Japan", "in good
The examination of applications by officials,
principally at interviews in Hong Kong, is the fence at which many applicants fall.
health".
6.
Applicants are interviewed by
by teams of Japanese
officials who visit Hong Kong periodically (twice in 1985).
The interviews include tests in mental arithmetic, another
feature apparently unique to Japanese selection for
At the interview stage a a further unwritten
requirement is invoked: willingness to accept resettlement
resettlement.
CONFIDENTIAL
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