A Brazilian woman of Japanese descent has filed a lawsuit against the government demanding that she be allowed to re-enter Japan, where her husband lives.
Giullyane Futenma, 21, was denied re-entry when her husband Lucas Futenma, 22, also a Japanese-Brazilian, applied for her resident eligibility in December 2012 with the immigration office in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.
The immigration office said she could not re-enter Japan because she had left for Brazil under a program that helps foreigners of Japanese descent who have lost their job to return to their home country.
According to the complaint, the woman first came to Japan with her parents when she was 7 years old, and they lived in Hamamatsu before returning to Brazil under the program in June 2009 after the parents were thrown out of work.
She and Lucas Futenma, who had also spent his adolescence in Japan, were married in Brazil in 2011. He had not used the program when he returned to Brazil. He came back to Japan last year and found a job in Hamamatsu.
Individuals who returned to their home countries under the program were initially not allowed to re-enter Japan, but the regulations were later eased to allow them to return after three years.
Giullyane Futenma, who now lives in Sao Paulo, has said there is no legal basis for her being denied re-entry to Japan.
"My right to live with my spouse has been violated," she said.
Lucas Futenma told a news conference Wednesday he hopes to win the suit, which was filed in the Shizuoka District Court, and bring his wife to Japan.