Japanese government may grant Noriko Calderon special permission for residence
The Japanese government was supposed to issue its decision today about the case of Noriko Calderon, a 13-year-old girl born and raised in Japan who is facing deportation because her parents are illegal immigrants. However, the Justice Ministry still needs time, so a 2-week extension of temporary residence has yet again been granted to the Calderon family.
No final decision has been reached, but the government announced that it is likely only Noriko will be allowed to stay in Japan:
A provisional release status for the family, which is under a deportation order, expired Friday, but the status has been extended for another two weeks, according to their lawyer.
The immigration authorities have suggested it may be possible to issue special permission for residence to Noriko only.
The ministry’s decision raises the possibility that only Noriko’s parents will be deported later this month.
Update: The BBC reports that her parents have been told to pack their bags.
But Justice Minister Eisuke Mori, who oversees immigration, told reporters: “I have decided not to grant a special residential permit to the entire family.”
A leading human rights lawyer handling the case said the immigration bureau had told the parents they had until 27 February to choose a departure date.
The immigration authorities warned that Noriko’s 36-year-old father could be detained if he refused to leave.
“We accept neither the deportation of the whole family nor sending back only the parents,” said lawyer Shogo Watanabe.
He said he would continue negotiating for the parents to be allowed to stay at least until the daughter was older.
Noriko’s father said: “She is 13 years old. She cannot survive or protect herself alone.”
Mr Watanabe said about 500 families were in the same situation as the Calderons.
Related Link: A video of Noriko’s appearance before the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan can be viewed on TV Jan.
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If she is allowed to stay in Japan, I suppose the only issue for her is being apart from her parents. I wonder who she’ll live with now?
If she is allowed to stay in Japan, I suppose the main concern now is her being apart from her parents. Is she going to be with a foster family or something?
It wasn’t her fault her family came into the country illegally it was her parents. I think that the government granting her special permission and not her parents is only fair, but still, that leaves to question where will she live and who will tak care of her from now on…
It’s not fair
I can’t imagine children live without their parents
You know what else is not fair? For illegal immigrants to come into a country ILLEGALLY.
The decesion is probably the most fair stance the governemnt could take.
They boot the parents who broke the law and let the innocent child stay in Japan. Obviously this is an unfortunate situation for the child….but that is the decesion handed down.
Now, the question is, will she be willing to stay in Japan without her parents? I would imagine that she would either get a foster care (which I would be sort of surprised since the economy right now is doing poorly in Japan as well as the world, therefore I dont really see many Families willing to take on another child to feed) OR for the child to leave with the parents. I don’t really forsee the parents sending money from the Philipines to the child to take care of her because I imagine that it is very difficult to find and maintain a living in the Philipines AND send help to their daughter who would live in Japan.
Interesting case though. And again, I would like to also point out that since theere are approximately 500 other families according to this article in a similar situation, it is best decesion possible. Their decesion won’t open up the flood gates of letting illegals stay just because its fair.
If she ends up in foster care she ends up in foster care–it’s not like they can turn kids without parents away!
It is fair that she gets to stay. She committed no crime.
It is unfair that she will have to live without her parents, but her parents are to blame for her suffering in that regard.
This is what happens to kids who have parents who break the law. Even if it’s a crime of paperwork and possibly tax evasion.
Ideally she could stay with the family of one of her friends.
At least with media attention, she’s probably likely to find someone to take care of her. Of course, she might find someone BAD, too, because of the media attention.
The situation sucks pretty bad.
“The immigration authorities warned that Noriko’s 36-year-old father could be detained if he refused to leave.”
Yeah. If you don’t leave, we’re going to keep you here. Yeah!
It’s a tragic situation. I feel sorry for the poor girl. But it is both her parents’ fault and responsibility. It’s irresponsible enough to enter a country illegally, but it’s far worse to involve a child in it and then expect special dispensation. Bad man. Baaaaad man. Oh, and bad woman.
Certainly a tight spot. I agree that the girl shouldn’t be to blame but obviously the parents aren’t in the clear either.
If I were in charge I’d say allow the mother to stay and deport the father. That way she’d at least have a parent with her and the father could work in his home country and send them money. After she graduates the mother would have to leave and switch her to a travel visa so that she’d have a few months to find a job and acquire a work visa. If she can’t find one in in the alloted time she’d have to leave like all other foreigners.
Without a parent there she’d probably up in foster care and that’s not exactly fair to Japanese tax payers or the girl.
What a load of crock. The parents should be ashamed of themselves for:
1) entering and staying in the country illegally; and
2) using their daughter to stay in the country.
And since the parents are understandably reluctant to leave Noriko in Japan by herself, why can’t they take her back to the Philippines with them? It’s not the first time that a child has ever been uprooted from one country to another; ask any child whose parents are diplomats, in the military, etc..
I hope the Japanese government enforces the deportation and that the parents start acting like adults that they are supposed to be.
because the girl doesn’t want to go to philipine, she doesn’t speak their langage and doesn’t know anything about philipine
That really isn’t a good enough reason…
If anything, she should blame her parents for putting her into that situation.
>she doesn’t speak their langage and doesn’t know >anything about philipine
She is thirteen years old. She can learn. It is not like the Philippines is Hell or some kind of prison. Sure, it will be disappointing for her to leave her friends, but, as Patrick rightly points out, children are uprooted from communities all the time.
I noted as much on debito.org. I also noted that I thought it was interesting that the Japanese media, which many on his blog vilify for being “anti-foreigner” has actually been very sympathetic to Noriko. For some reason he firstly erased the second comment as some sort of “swipe”, and I now see that he has erased both comments altogether.
I had read (here actually) that he does screen his comments, but I wasn’t sure he was that paranoid so as to completely screen out non-malicious opinions that he didn’t agree with. Wow!
Sorry for the brief digression.
“children are uprooted from communities all the time.”
that is:
“children are uprooted from communities all the time because of choices that their parents make.”
“children are uprooted from communities all the time.”
That is
“children are uprooted from communities all the time because of choices that their parents make.”
lol, she can learn, of course.
but would you want to? eh?
if you were her, imagine it, you are 13, you think you are a Us citezen, you only speak english and you only know americain people.
and one day, the Us governement tell you that your parent are illegal mexican and that you are going to be send back to mexico.
would you be happy? would you want to go over there and learn? i don’t think so, i wouldn’t
No, but then I wouldn’t be happy if I were a thirteen year old brought up in the United States and my parents suddenly decided to move to Mexico because of their work. Parents’ choices always affect what happens to children.
I’m chiming in on this one a bit late.
“Noriko didn’t do anything wrong!”- Yeah but children are always tied to the misdeeds and misfortunes of their parents. A parent commits a crime and goes to jail- it’s tough for the kid but do we really want to use the “child did nothing wrong so why should they suffer” argument in such cases? A parent can lose a job through no fault of their own, the child suffers. Why should the child suffer? Because children are tied to their parents misdeeds ands misfortunes. It’s a fact of life. And entering on a false passport is a pretty big misdeed by any country’s standards.
Anyway, what’s so terrible about shifting countries at age 12 or 13? People emigrarte and immigrate all the time with their kids who are new to the culture and struggle with the language. I grew up around such kids in Canada but they adapt just fine. Many of you probably know people who brought their families from N. America, the U.K. and so on to live and work in Japan. It can be a tough adjustment for the kids but it’s not like throwing them to the wolves (and that much less so in Noriko’s case where Noriko will have a large family network and parents who know the Philippine system, culture and Tagalog language fully) and it’s definitely better at that age than being separated from your parents by country.
And those of you who routinely assume that non-Japanese will get bullied as a matter of course in Japanese schools and/or that Japanese education is just a pile of mindless indoctrination. well I’ll assume that you think she’s be better off away from that system.
True that since she is only 13 she would be able to learn a new language and adapt to another culture. There is no reason why the family cannot return to the Phillippines.
This isn’t the same thing as a Japanese family willingly moving to the Philippines, this is more like exile and loss of citizenship (I know Noriko technically never had citizenship, but she is Japanese for all intents and purposes). Would you like it if someone suddenly you told that you aren’t American (or whatever your nationality is) and then sent you to a third world country?
There’s just no good reason to eject her from Japan, and I’m glad the Japanese authorities realized that.
But still,I find this decision lacking basic moral foundation.
Some sort of amnesty is needed for Calderons.
If there’s somebody blamed of lacking moral foundation, that would be The Calderons.
Shame on the Japanese justice minister for handing down this decision! While Noriko’s parents may have stayed in Japan illegally, I’m sure that at the time Japan was more than happy to accept people who would do the jobs they wouldn’t. An exception should have been made, worded, if you like, that while their actions cannot be condoned, they had contributed to the Japanese economy and in the interests of the child (who IS Japanese, by the way – what else does she know???) they could be allowed to settle and contribute legitimately. After all, aren’t the Japanese always moaning that the birth rate is falling? One obvious way to help this is to invite ‘foreigners’ to settle and why not invite people who contribute to society?
Having said that, I know from my time in Japan that there is a general stickling for rules, island mentality and fear of losing their distinctive culture, so sadly it doesn’t surprise me. Shame also on some of the posters here, themselves foreigners and sitting in judgement. You wouldn’t be able to get away with such attitudes back ‘home’. Quite frankly I’d boot YOU lot out. After all, you’re probably contributing far less to Japanese society that the Calderons have done.
Person who came here and stay here REAGALLY have something to say, I guess.
It’s nothing to do with island mentaliry or low birthrate.
They have to leave coz broke the rules.
REAGALLY → LEAGALLY
“While Noriko’s parents may have stayed in Japan illegally, I’m sure that at the time Japan was more than happy to accept people who would do the jobs they wouldn’t”.
Ummm no. Japan- and nowhere else on earth- is ‘happy’ to have people arrive and stay on false passports. They didn’t just overstay, they used false passports.
“After all, aren’t the Japanese always moaning that the birth rate is falling? One obvious way to help this is to invite ‘foreigners’ to settle and why not invite people who contribute to society?”
Yes. Invite. Due process. This case wasn’t. Kids suffer from or benefit from their parents choices as a fact of life. It’s tough. But blaming the Japanese island mentality or the usual J suspects (let’s call it sloppy ethnology) for this is simplistic, knee-jerk stuff.
Also, by the way, it is quite easy to find a lot of similar cases ‘back home’, wherever that may be. Check on recent UK and Ireland illegal immigrant deportations, France crackdowns, controversial cases in North America. I’m not going to bore you with links (that’s Ponta’s job heh heh), they are easy to find.
“Kids suffer from or benefit from their parents choices as a fact of life. It’s tough.”
But where possible they should not have to. Since there is a process here to avoid that, it is acceptable to follow it.
Mike, thanks for your comment. Good reply, though possibly no need for the ‘ummm…’. Your answer here is a contrast to the many, quite frankly, unnecessary comments that posters have come out with – and I saw plenty when this conversation kicked off a few months back! – worded to the effect that they were law-breaking whatevers (insert your own word here!) and should be booted out.
The fact is the kid was born in Japan and knows no other culture. Her parents may have done wrong, no two ways about it, but it the child who is suffering here. An exception could’ve been made, with wording to the effect that while this isn’t acceptable behaviour, under the circumstances they could remain. At least till the kid is grown up and can fend for herself!
I appreciate that for westerners who’ve gone to Japan this could be annoying, given that they’ve gone through the due process of getting the right visa, etc. But it’s highly unlikely that we’d ever feel pushed into this kind of action, so it would be good to see a little compassion.
Bear in mind that people only do this kind of thing through desperation. I’m not saying that it’s the right thing to do, but this is a different case from some individual who’s snuck in and overstayed. These people now have a child; while many might argue that they’re using her as a pawn, the fact is she’s here and it changes things.
The person who’s suffering is Noriko. I hope that if this had happened in my ‘back home’ – another island – we’d give it a lot more thought – and be quick to say ‘pot, kettle, black’ to any non-EU residents who came out with the kind of racist trash I have been reading about this case.
Just a little addendum to my response above…
Most posters here are aware of the Nihonjin-ron literature (mostly 30-40 years old but the legacy remains here and there). Most will agree it is eye-rolling stuff. But what surprises me is how many NJ’s, and especially NJs who are highly critical of Japan, inadvertently buy into it.
Something negative or questionable happens in Japan and it is interpreted as being essentially ‘Japanese’; it is explained by features or qualities supposedly unique to Japan. The ‘only in Japan’ mentality comes to the fore without looking carefully at the wider world. Ties to being Japanese are offered as the automatic response to localised phenomena. Pure Nihonjin-ron.
You know Mike, that is an excellent point. I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but I too have always been endlessly amused by foreigners complaining about the “Japanese” mindset of “lumping everyone non-Japanese into one big group” (even as they (the foreigners) themselves lump all Japanese into one big group through the simple act of complaining about a “Japanese” mindset). Or the way anything the foreigners don’t like or think is unfair, even if the exact same thing happens to foreigners back in their home country (which of course they as natives in that country never noticed or thought about until the shoe was on the other foot*), is a symptom of some unique-to-Japan-and-Japanese peculiarity. You are absolutely right – an amazing number of foreigners in Japan are blindly promoting Nihonjin-ron. In fact, given the number of times over the past 15 years I have seen or heard a foreigner ignorantly rant about “only in Japan”, and compared to the number of times I have seen or heard a Japanese state something similarly ignorant about the “uniqueness” of Japan, I think the biggest proponents of Nihonjin-ron are foreigners, not Japanese. Sort of shades of that Oscar Wilde quote on Ampontan’s site: “In fact the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.” (Oscar Wilde, noticing in 1889 that popular conceptions about the country and its people are mostly fiction.)
Thanks for the moment of inspiration – I will add this to my handy list of things to use to counter ignorami.
*copyright 2009 Tepid Naruhodo, who only just remembered the phrase “shoe on the other foot” and now uses it daily whether it is apt or not, and actually created yet another blog subject category, his 2000th, just to create a place to further use the phrase.
she won’t be forced to stay in japan alone, will she. she can stay in japan or move back to the philipines with her parents.
playing devil’s advocate, isn’t it a little wrong to use the girl as a pawn to negotiate a continued stay in this country? i feel like this is what is happening as even is she does speak no tagalog (which i doubt) 13 is a excellent age to make a change. it will be hard at first but after a couple of years she will adapt
Just a final note on this issue from me.
I wonder if anyone else here is looking at this from the perspective of a loving parent? I am the father of a boy the same age as Noriko and I would find it heartbreaking to leave him behind in Japan and very unfortunate to uproot him (although my choice would be to have him return to Canada with me- he would adapt, although it would be uncomfortable at first).
But if I had made the choice to enter Japan on a false passport in the first place, I would realize that it is ME who has put the child’s welfare at risk by comitting fraud. I would also be aware that someday the gig will probably be up and that I will be responsible for having put my child in jeopardy. And I would make provisions in advance to prepare for that possibility.
And when the time came, I would apologize to my child for my actions because, dammit, I am a parent and it was my choice, my decision that he is paying for. You take responsibility for the decisions that affect your child’s life even if- especially if- they are tough ones. Shifting that blame onto the Japanese government, legal system or ‘Japaneseness’ is totally unconscionable.
(LB- Glad you found the earlier post useful. It’s something I’ve been mulling for awhile.)
Ohmigawd – now Mike is advocating personal responsibility! That’s… that’s… so old fashioned! Jeez, that kind of thinking went out with Ike!
*sigh*
Yep, this is the second post of yours that had me nodding my head in agreement. Like I said in another entry here on Japanprobe about Noriko, what she is being put through is unfair. I will admit that. But it is her parents who put her in this spot. They didn’t just overstay, they entered under false pretenses (fake passports) and then overstayed. And had a kid along the way. Yes, the system screwed up by not finding them sooner and booting them out before Noriko was born or even shortly thereafter, but ultimately it all comes back to the parents. And you know, I bet if Japan started really cracking down, checking IDs, checking out the backgrounds and visa statuses of people when they got jobs or enrolled their kids in schools, the same people who bash the system for not catching Noriko’s parents earlier would be screaming “Big Brother!” at the top of their lungs until their temples exploded. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…
Now Noriko can stay – but her parents can’t. That is probably the fairest possible solution, but obviously not good enough for some. “How can they make her choose between her parents (ie returning with them to the Philippines) and staying in Japan?!?” That’s tough, I agree. But again, who set her up to be in that position in the first place? It sure wasn’t the Justice Ministry, or any other bit of Japanese officialdom.
But hey – you want real injustice, just look what the US is trying to do to thousands of Liberians now living there: it let them in on “temporary protected status” visas over a decade ago, but unlike other refugees that special TPS visa was worded such that they could never naturalize even if they wanted to. They would have to get out when the US decided they were no longer welcome. Their kids born in the US have citizenship, and yet still they (the parents, at least) will have to leave the US by the end of next month.
Mike,
I respect your post a lot. And I mean, A LOT.
If more parents took responsibilities in their own hand and stoped blaming external factors (such as the media, government, etc) and just took the responsibility as a parent, this world would be a different place.
All in all though, for those of you who bash the Japanese government, I say to you, you are silly.
This is in no way the government’s fault. That is the law they enacted and it is only fair for citizens and non-citizens to abide by them, regardless of it being “fair” or “not fair”. Law’s are not created to be “fair” they are created to protect people. And, if you don’t like the law, changee it by electing officials in a democratic fashion (since Japan is a democracy).
the only people to blame are the parents, not the government.
Japan has strict rules in terms of immigration and if you enter illegally to must be prepared to face the consequences.