Much fanfare greeted the arrival at Narita in September 2010 of the first Burmese refugees to take advantage of Japan's decision to join the U.N.'s third-country resettlement program. Japan was the first Asian country to join the program, it was emphasized, under which the country would take in "less than 100" refugees from camps along the Thai-Myanmar border each year. Some refugee advocates even dared to believe that the move might mark the start of a trend toward a more humanitarian approach to applications for refugee status by those fleeing conflict or poverty.
Since then, however, the resettlement program has been widely criticized as ill-thought-out, half-hearted and even exploitative. After accepting an initial 30 ethnic Karen refugees from the Mae La camp in 2010 and another 17 in 2011, reports suggest the program is struggling to find families eager to relocate to Japan in the wake of all the bad press. Despite these teething troubles, the government announced in March it was extending the program for another three years.
At the beginning of the three-year pilot program, five families were brought over to Japan. After a six-month language and survival course, they were distributed between Chiba and Mie prefectures. Though living conditions were slightly better in Mie, all the families faced a number of problems.