Last year, 5,000 people applied for refugee status in Japan. 11 were accepted.

This past March, the Economist ran a headline, "No entry: As the world's refugee problem grows, Japan pulls up the drawbridge." The article included an image of the red circle (the sun) that is the flag symbol of Japan with a white bar through it, the symbol for "Do Not Enter" signs in Europe. This month The Washington Post weighed in with an article headlined, "As Europe makes room for refugees, some in Japan ask why not us?"

Japan is a strong target for refugee criticism because of its modest engagement in social media and global communications. Typically, it doesn't proactively make its case to the world, largely allowing the international press and the Twitterverse to frame its issues for it.