"Abdul" is having a bad day. Sitting on the other side of a thick glass wall at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, the Cameroon national is waiting to hear on the status of his application to claim political asylum in Japan. He has already been rejected four times.
A detainee in the neighboring cell has been here around two years, he says, alluding to a fate he is worried may also be in store for him. He toys with the gold band on his ring finger and wonders aloud if "love truly exists" or not. His Japanese wife has stopped visiting him.
With Abdul now, however, are myself and three other students from Sophia University and, for the next 15 minutes, we will be his captive audience. We have been visiting him every week for more than a year now, listening to his struggles and bringing him the occasional gift — notebooks, undergarments or a toothbrush, for instance.