Last month, these pages carried the story of a Kurdish family that came to Japan seeking asylum, only to be torn apart by the country's arcane immigration laws.
The experience of Erdal Dogan, his wife Meryem and their two small children, suggested a system that was failing badly to deal with the growing refugee problem.
Erdal has been held with his brother Deniz in a center for illegal immigrants and visa overstayers for months, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves with the help of an over-stretched support sector.