The Nagoya District Court on Thursday overruled a deportation order issued to an illegal Filipino resident and said he can stay in Japan with his family.

The 34-year-old man entered Japan in March 2006 on a short-term visa but stayed after it expired. In March 2010, he married a Philippine citizen who was previously married to a Japanese and decided to live with her and her children from the previous marriage.

The man turned himself in to the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau in June the same year, seeking permission to stay, but was denied.

Judge Akiyo Fukui said the immigration chief's rejection "made light of his matrimonial relationship with the legally staying wife who had a permanent residency permit, as well as the family situation in which he was supporting her children from the previous marriage."