In the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Tokyo Organizing Committee touted their signature slogan: the Japanese word “omotenashi” meaning the traits of hospitality, professionalism and kindness, wrapped in silky Asian spirit.

But behind the slick marketing bid that brought the Olympics to Tokyo, and hosted them one year into the pandemic, there was a different reality just one hour away from Tokyo’s gateway Narita Airport: a non-descript building in a quiet town named Ushiku. Asylum seekers are held there like prison inmates until the government can enforce a deportation order and load them onto a plane to remove them from Japan.

The statistics are striking, as well as the images and individual stories of director Thomas Ash’s documentary, called Ushiku. The NGO Japan Association for Refugees (JAR) found in 2016 that while Germany accepted 41% of asylum applications and the U.S. accepted 62%, the number for Japan was a mere 0.4%, the lowest of all G7 rich club nations. It raises the question of Japan’s commitment as a signatory of human rights legislation under numerous United Nations declarations.

Ash’s film does not delve into the nationalities or the application details of each featured asylum seeker. His point is that all people have a right to safety and protection from persecution. In this film it is the immigration authority that is under scrutiny, not the asylum seekers.

 The documentary includes footage taken by hidden camera inside the detention center, and also images filmed by the authorities of forced transfers of detainees, obtained by legal petition. 

In a post-screening appearance, Mr. Ash said “The most shocking images are not the ones I took. They’re the ones of the officers filming themselves.”

As the director visited the Ushiku facility to conduct multiple interviews with the detainees, he saw that their lives were in the balance: 17 suicides in 15 years, and repeated hunger strikes that required medical intervention.

Ash says “I started feeling a sense of responsibility for their health – if they go on hunger strike or if they attempt suicide.” 

We see one young male detainee who was temporarily released from the detention building during the pandemic. He and the director walk into a local restaurant and look over a plastic-coated menu. They appear as two normal people having a simple meal. Later we see Ash filming with a hidden camera through a glass partition in the detention center. The same happy young man we saw at the restaurant is now on hunger strike: his face gaunt, his eyes lacking hope. He is barely able to speak.

Japanese Diet member Taiga Ishikawa also addressed the post-screening audience – he is involved in human rights issues as secretary-general of the Japanese government Parliamentary Roundtable on Refugee Issues.

As a champion of minority and LGBT rights, Ishihawa recognized that the legal barriers are an anachronism in modern civil society. “This is not a story of the past. This is still going on now.” While pointing that he does not have the right to intervene in each individual case, he is working to change the legal statutes.

The film shows Ishikawa in a parliamentary debate, sparring with ministers from the Department of Justice, who say that asylum seekers “don’t want to” return to their home countries – Ishikawa responds vigorously that they “cannot return to” their countries for fear of persecution or death. He states for the record that the Ministry of Justice official has “completely misunderstood” the situation and status of asylum seekers.

The film has received numerous accolades, including the Nippon Docs Award 2021, the DMZ Asian Perspective Award, and official selection at the Paris Int. Film Festival.

The Olympic Games are over, and the pandemic measures are slowly being eased, but Japan’s closed door policy towards asylum seekers and refugees persists.

June 20 is the annual United Nations World Refugee Day, with events scheduled worldwide.

For further information:

Film website with education and participation links : https://www.ushikufilm.com/en/watch/

Japanese Diet member Taiga Ishikawa, Japanese Diet member, Secretary-general of Japanese government Parliamentary Roundtable of Refugee Issues:

https://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/joho1/kousei/eng/members/profile/7019004.htm