Visitors to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau can't miss a giant banner strung over the main hall of Shinagawa JR Station. Sponsored by the bureau, the sign implores those who pass under it to obey the rules as Japan globalizes. In the household of Erdal Dogan, it provokes hollow laughs.
"We have followed the rules. It is the government that has broken them," says the 33-year-old Kurd. "They ignore international rules for the treatment of refugees."
Eight-and-a-half difficult years after coming to Japan to claim political asylum, he is leaving for Canada with his family.