OSAKA — The Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau decided Tuesday to allow the teenage son of a family of illegal Chinese immigrants to stay in the country for one more month, officials said.
Zhou Pengyu, 16, currently attending a public high school in Osaka, will be allowed to stay in the country on a provisional basis, but his family will be deported immediately, the officials said.
Pengyu's family was to be escorted by authorities to Kansai airport on Wednesday afternoon and placed on a flight to Shenyang, China.
Said Pengyu: "I feel lonely living alone. But I want to stay in Japan and want to go to university."
Pengyu and his family moved to Japan from China in 1996, entering the country under a false claim by Pengyu's mother that she is the sister of a war-displaced Japanese in China who had moved to Japan, according to members of support groups for the family in Osaka.
The family and support group members requested an extension, particularly to enable Pengyu to continue his studies, the members said.
A lawyer supporting Pengyu said: "The positive outcome resulted because Pengyu's wishes were understood. We do not know, however, until when the provisional stay will be extended. The situation is still unpredictable."
Immigration authorities said they discovered in 2000 that Pengyu's family had illegally entered the country and ordered them to leave. Pengyu's father has recently been detained in an immigration bureau facility, they added.
The Justice Ministry usually only allows the biological relatives of war-displaced Japanese to reside in the country.