The Justice Ministry has decided not to allow a Filipino family, including a 13-year-old girl born and raised in Japan, to continue to stay together in the country, Justice Minister Eisuke Mori said Friday.
The decision was conveyed to Arlan Calderon, 36, and his wife, Sarah, 38, both with deportation orders against them, when they arrived at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to seek special permission for residence in Japan with their daughter, Noriko, who attends a junior high school in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture.
A provisional release status for the family, which is under a deportation order, expired Friday, but the status has been extended for another two weeks through Feb. 27 so the family can prepare for departure, according to their lawyer.
The immigration authorities have told the couple it may only be possible to issue special permission for residence for their daughter.
After hearing the decision, the daughter told reporters: "I'm very shocked. I will not be able to continue studying if I'm apart from my parents."
While the family will again seek special permission for residence when they present themselves at the bureau on Feb. 27, it is highly likely that Arlan and Sarah Calderon will be deported soon.
"Noriko is still 13 years old," Arlan Calderon said. "We will not be able to leave her alone in Japan."
Their daughter was born in 1995 in Japan after her parents entered Japan in the early 1990s on different people's passports.
They filed a lawsuit to seek nullification of the deportation order against them, but the Supreme Court rejected it last September.
"I want to live in Japan together with my parents," the daughter told reporters earlier this week in Tokyo.
