foreign residents and to reinforce the collection and analysis of information.

- Based on an agreement concluded between the Immigration Bureau and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) in September 2010, the Immigration Bureau and the JFBA are to discuss methods of improving the situation of problems related to detention in immigration control. In addition, the Immigration Bureau and the JFBA have arranged for legal consultations etc. to be provided by attorneys to the detainees.

- With regard to detainees who have been detained for a considerable period of time following the issuance of a written deportation order, the Immigration Bureau will continue to check and examine the necessity for and suitability of provisional release for such detainees at regular intervals, and will flexibly utilize provisional release while taking individual situations into account so as to implement further appropriate deportation procedures.

- In July 2010, the Immigration Bureau established the Immigration Detention Facilities Visiting Committee consisting of experts from outside the Immigration Bureau, and the Immigration Bureau will continue to make efforts to ensure further transparency in security measures, and to improve and enhance the operations of the immigration detention centers, etc., while taking the Committee’s views into consideration.

## ☐ Promotion of appropriate and prompt refugee protection

- In order to quickly stabilize the legal status of foreign nationals who are to be recognized as refugees, the Immigration Bureau set six months as the standard processing time for the examination of refugee applications, and the average processing and examination times for each quarter of FY 2012 were kept to less than six months.

- A program to accept and support the resettlement of Myanmarese refugees who were staying in a refugee camp in Thailand was launched in FY 2010 as a pilot case for the acceptance of refugees desiring resettlement in a third country. In FY 2010, the first group consisting of twenty-seven refugees from five families came to Japan, and in FY 2011, eighteen refugees from four families came to Japan. (Although sixteen refugees from three families were to enter Japan in FY2012, each of them declined the offer of acceptance prior to entry into Japan.)

- In February 2012, the Immigration Bureau concluded a memorandum with the NPO Forum for Refugees Japan and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations agreeing to hold discussions in order to uncover areas requiring improvement in the administration of refugee-related issues coming under the jurisdiction of the Immigration Bureau, including the procedures for recognition of refugee status, and also to exchange information such as on the provision of housing by refugee support groups to applicants awaiting the results of their refugee applications.

## ☐ The international community and responding to international situations

- With respect to extending the authorized period of stay of Indonesian and Filipino nurse and care worker candidates under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), approval was granted through a Cabinet decision on February 26, 2013 for even nurse and care worker candidates, who had entered Japan between FY 2010 and FY 2012, but had not taken part in a six-month Japanese language training course prior to coming to Japan, to be afforded an exceptional one-time opportunity to extend the period of stay permitted under the EPA for an additional year, continue their work and training in Japan and to retake the national nursing exam subject to the condition that they had acquired a prescribed minimum score in the FY 2012 national nursing exam.

- The Immigration Bureau has actively participated in negotiations to conclude an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with various countries.

- The Immigration Bureau attended international conferences, including G8 meetings and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to develop cooperative ties and to share information through discussions and exchanges of opinions with other countries.