Since October last year, there have been at least 34 cases in which asylum seekers at immigration facilities purposefully injured themselves, with some even going so far as to attempt suicide, the Justice Ministry has admitted.

The figure was revealed by a ministry official responding to a question from Satoshi Inoue, a Japanese Communist Party member, during a recent House of Councilors Judicial Committee session.

While Japan has accepted more than 10,000 immigrants from Indochina since 1979 as a special measure, the government has subjected asylum seekers from other countries to a far stricter and often muddy screening process.