Twelve foreigners who have overstayed their visas will be allowed to stay in Japan after applying for residents' status in September, Justice Minister Hideo Usui said Friday. The 12 are part of a group of 21 who publicly approached immigration authorities in September. It is the first time the government has issued permits to foreigners in these circumstances. Usually foreigners who have overstayed their visas will only be granted permission to continue residing in Japan if they have Japanese relatives. The 12 are members of three Iranian families who have lived in Japan for nearly 10 years and have children enrolled at Japanese schools, sources said. In a news conference after Friday's Cabinet meeting, Usui said he has decided to allow the 12 to reside in Japan "after taking into consideration their family circumstances and behavior," apparently referring to their good public standing. Usui has already given final approval and will immediately notify the 12, ministry officials said. However, Usui does not plan to issue permits to five of the 21 applicants and will order them to leave Japan immediately, sources said. Those denied permission include a Myanmarese family of three, the sources said, adding that the child is young enough to adapt to a new environment. The ministry also decided that two single males -- an Iranian and Bangladeshi -- are ineligible for visas, the sources said. The two claimed that they need to stay in Japan to receive treatment for injuries suffered while working here. The ministry judged that they can receive treatment in their home countries. The ministry is withholding a decision on an Iranian family of four to further examine their situation, the sources said. The landmark decision, in which the previous standard for considering such cases was drastically eased, may herald a new set of criteria determining whether foreigners who have overstayed their visas will be allowed to remain in Japan, the sources said. It is likely the decision will prompt families in similar circumstances to rush to immigration authorities to apply for the visas, they said. Usui on Friday, however, denied that the decision means the criteria have been changed for future cases, saying individual circumstances must always be taken into account. In December, another group of 17 Iranians who have overstayed their visas applied for special permission to stay in Japan. The group is made up of five couples and their seven children, four of whom were born in Japan. The ministry said there were 268,421 foreigners in Japan without proper visas as of July 1. Most are believed to have come to Japan in the early 1990s to make up for labor shortages during the bubble era.
