Immigration authorities released Wednesday a Chinese college student who was detained in 2002 because he had no blood ties with his Japanese grandmother.
The Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau released Takeo Yanagi, 21, on a provisional basis. Yanagi, whose Japanese grandmother stayed in China after World War II, came to Japan from China in 1994.
In 2000, the authorities confiscated Yanagi's permit to stay in Japan after it was discovered that his parents were adopted and that he was not a blood relative of his grandmother.
Yanagi and his 45-year-old father were taken to the Nishinihon Immigration Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, in August 2002. Yanagi was a first-year student at St. Andrew's University when he was detained.
"I'm angry that I have been deprived of my precious time," Yanagi said as he emerged from the immigration center. "My father remains detained and may face deportation."