A program to offer long-term residence status that will allow asylum-seekers, including evacuees from Ukraine, to work in Japan will be introduced in December, the government said Tuesday.

Starting on Dec. 1, the new residence status, established in a revised asylum bill approved by parliament in May, will be granted to asylum-seekers hailing from areas experiencing an ongoing conflict who are considered in need of “subsidiary protection.” The system intends to provide them with a stable residence status in Japan on par with those legally recognized as refugees.

“We wanted to quickly implement this new system for those eligible for subsidiary protection, in particular, to bring some relief to the suffering of many people,” Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi told a news conference Tuesday.

Ukrainian citizens escaping the ongoing war are regarded as the main recipients of the system, but asylum-seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and other war-torn countries across the world are also expected to benefit from the new system following a screening process.

The “subsidiary protection” system aims to fill a gap in refugee legislation and guarantee higher life stability and security to those fleeing military conflicts who don’t fall within Japan’s narrow definition of what constitutes a refugee.

Tokyo defines refugees on the basis of the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention as those who are "unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion."

So far, Japan has conceded refugee status to those strictly fitting these criteria — usually only a fraction of the total number of asylum-seekers. This prompted criticism that the country — the world’s third-largest economy — was shutting its doors to people escaping humanitarian crises across the globe.

In 2022, a total of 3,772 people applied for refugee status, but only 202 were recognized as legal refugees, Justice Ministry data shows. An additional 1,760 applicants, corresponding to 46% of the total number of applicants, were afforded residence status on humanitarian grounds.

Ukrainian asylum-seekers are not included in these figures, as they were classified as evacuees, not as refugees. As of last Friday, 2,506 Ukrainians had entered Japan since March 2022 and 2,091 still reside within the country.

Over the years, Tokyo has accepted evacuees and asylum-seekers from specific countries, such as Afghanistan and Myanmar — in the latter, a military coup has led to the outflow of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

However, asked about the likelihood of a full revision of the asylum system, Koizumi appeared cautious, underlining the importance of striking a balance between protecting people and ensuring that those who stay respect the law.

“We must first create strict rules and enforce them, while protecting those who should be protected,” Koizumi said.