In summer 2005, a man from Myanmar seeking asylum in Japan was found dead in his Tokyo apartment. But because he had no family here, the results of the autopsy were not released and the cause of death remains unknown to this day.
But Dr. Junpei Yamamura suspects the death was due to a lack of proper medical treatment in the immigration detention center where the man was held for a year and a half.
As a physician, Yamamura has spent the past decade treating foreigners in Japan — from illegal overstayers to asylum seekers. From 2002, he has been visiting the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, once a month, where he monitors the mental and physical problems of the detainees.