KOBE -- For over six years, 40-year-old Peruvian Jose could enjoy his stay in Japan, where he had a stable job at a leather processing factory and his family had a peaceful life in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture.

Now every night, Jose, not his real name, cannot help but worry about his family's fate. It is all up to the justice minister to decide either to grant Jose, his Peruvian wife and three daughters special residence permits or to deport them.

The family's world practically changed overnight one day in November, when an official at the Immigration Bureau's Kobe office called Jose's employer to ask if his employee had overstayed his visa. The official said the office received a report about Jose and his family members being over-stayers.

Jose showed his passport to his employer for the first time since he began working at the factory in April 1993. His three-month tourist visa had long expired.

He always knew he could be deported if he was arrested for overstaying his visa. But at the same time, he felt that as long as he was a law-abiding citizen, he would be all right.

After the call in November, he had to decide either to run away with his family or present himself to the office and request special residence permission, even though he knew he had very little chance of receiving such status.

Up until February, foreigners who had overstayed their visas and had no Japanese relatives had rarely been granted special residence permission. However, 16 members of four Iranian families were granted the special status last month, which has been seen as setting a new standard for granting the status.

Although the Justice Ministry is believed to have taken into account the fact that the families have children enrolled in local schools, the Immigration Bureau denies that a new standard was introduced with the decisions.

Similar applications by two men, from Iran and Bangladesh, and a Myanmarese family with a 2-year-old daughter, were all rejected.

Rather than getting caught, Jose and his wife chose to ask for the special permission and, accompanied by a Spanish interpreter, presented themselves to immigration authorities in late November.

"We want to stay in Japan very much because of the education for our daughters. The oldest one, now 11, attends the fifth grade at a local elementary school, and two others, 5 and 2, go to a local kindergarten. All of them understand only Japanese. Even when they have a quarrel, they argue in Japanese," Jose said through an interpreter.

"In addition, we love this country. Unlike Peru, it is very peaceful and the people are very nice."

In April 1993, Jose came to Japan from Cuzco, Peru, via Los Angeles with his wife and the couple's 4-year-old daughter. He had a Peruvian friend in Tatsuno who introduced him to a job at the factory he has been working for since.

Initially, Jose did not think about living permanently in Japan. It was hard for him and his wife Maria to get used to the new environment, language, food and work. In contrast, his daughter was quick to fit in.

After about one year, Jose said he began to like living in Japan. He had a job and social order was very well maintained compared to his home country, where guerrilla fighting was going on at the time. Finding a job was also difficult.

The couple had a second daughter in May 1994, followed by another one in January 1998.

Following Jose's application for special residence permission, NGO Network for Foreigners' Assistance KOBE, which supports Jose's bid, started to collect signatures asking the justice minister to grant the family the status.

A petition with some 9,600 signatures was submitted to the Immigration Bureau's Kobe office on Feb. 22, the day Jose had his first interview there. His case is still pending.

Shizuo Aino of the network said that the Iranian cases gave some hope to Jose but did not guarantee anything.

"The Iranian families had children who are 12 years old or older. Jose, whose eldest child is 11, can take nothing for granted," Aino said.

Jose said that he wants to apologize that he and his family overstayed their visas, but added that he hopes the minister grants the special residence permission to his family.

"If we are allowed to stay on in Japan, I want to help my daughters attend university. Then my role as a father will be completed," Jose said.