Members of ethnic communities have expressed hope that the new administration, slated to be launched Tuesday by Shinzo Abe, will help improve their living conditions.
"There is still a sense (in Japan) that you don't belong," said Jeffrey Cabanday, 27, a system planner from the Philippines who has lived in Tokyo since 2000.
Cabanday and others said the revision in May of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors as part of counterterrorism measures makes them feel like they are being treated as criminals.