### e. Departure Order System

The Departure Order System was established when the amendment of the Immigration Control Act entered into force in December 2004. Under the system, illegal foreign residents who satisfy certain requirements may depart from Japan without being detained in accordance with simple procedures.

Upon establishment of the departure order system, the period of denial of landing applicable to foreign nationals who have departed from Japan by a departure order has been reduced to one year.

A foreign national who has stayed in Japan beyond the authorized period of stay and who also satisfies all of the following requirements may be ordered to depart from Japan.

(1) The foreign national has appeared at an immigration office voluntarily;

(2) The foreign national does not fall under any of the grounds for deportation other than overstaying;

(3) The foreign national has not been sentenced to imprisonment with or without labor on the charge of larceny or other prescribed crimes after entering Japan;

(4) The foreign national has no past record of deportation, nor that of departure by a departure order;

(5) The foreign national is expected with certainty to depart from Japan immediately.

## (5) Refugee Recognition Procedures

### a. Signing the Refugee Convention

Japan increased its involvement in the refugee issue when many Indo-Chinese fled from their countries in the early part of 1979 as refugees. Japan became a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees on March 3, 1981 and signed the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees on January 1, 1982( $ ^{*} $ 8).

The Refugee Convention and Protocol define the conditions for refugees and state that the concluding countries must guarantee refugees' various rights set forth in the Convention and that the concluding countries may not expel or deport refugees to regions where they may be subject to persecution.

For Japan to become a party to the Refugee Convention and the Protocol and assertively execute their provisions, the government as a whole had to become involved. Therefore, relevant agencies discussed the distribution of responsibilities and, as a result, the Minister of Justice was placed in charge of refugee recognition, determining whether a foreign national who arrives in Japan is a refugee as defined by the Refugee Convention (Cabinet Agreement on “Conclusion and Execution of the Convention Concerning the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Concerning the Status of Refugees” dated March 13, 1981). Therefore, the Immigration Control Order was amended to stipulate the details of refugee recognition procedures and the law was renamed “The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act” (enacted on January 1, 1982).

Furthermore, from the viewpoint of giving refugees more appropriate and swift refuge, the refugee recognition system was revised significantly through the amendment of the law in 2004 (enforced on May 16, 2005).

## (*8) Refugee Convention and Protocol

The Refugee Convention (Convention No. 21 of 1981) provides a definition for refugees and states that the concluding countries may not expel or deport refugees to regions where they may be subject to persecution and that the signatory countries must primarily grant the rights and protection afforded by domestic regulations. The Protocol, on the other hand, deletes the Refugee Convention’s wording, “as a result of incidents that occurred prior to January 1, 1951” and provides an expanded definition of refugees (Convention No. 1 of 1982).

### b. Refugee Recognition Procedures

## (a) Definitions

Under the Refugee Convention, a refugee is defined as “owing to well-founded fear of being