Japan should accept more displaced people, the head of the United Nations’ refugee agency has said, as a series of conflicts worldwide push the level of forced displacement to new heights.
New refugee figures released by the U.N. on Wednesday put the number of people displaced around the world at 110 million as of May. The number has more than doubled in a decade, driven by events including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the civil war in Syria, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and clashes between military and paramilitary forces in Sudan.
Speaking to the media on Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on Japan to do more to support refugees in line with the current practices of other advanced economies. In 2022, Japan granted refugee status to 202 people. Previous years had seen the country accept just dozens each year.
“We’re not yet there at the standards that a country like Japan should have,” he said. He compared its track record to the U.S., which plans to admit up to 125,000 refugees this fiscal year.
Grandi acknowledged that cultural factors play a role in this gap. “The U.S. is a country built by immigrants and refugees.” he said. “Japan is not.” At the same time, he said even countries like Japan still needed immigration to supplement low birth rates at home.
In regulating immigration, Grandi urged countries to “reserve a little slice for those that are not [moving] by choice, but are obliged to flee and have very much the need to be in a safe country like Japan.”
With the right opportunities and training, “these people can become big contributors to society,” he said.
Under current Japanese rules, those fleeing conflict do not qualify for refugee status in most cases. An immigration reform bill passed by the upper house on Friday will allow Japan to take in such individuals as “quasi-refugees.”
Prior to this change, Japan accepted over 2,000 “evacuees” fleeing the war in Ukraine.
While appealing for Japan to ramp up its own refugee program, Grandi praised the country’s recent financial contributions to his agency. “Japan has made huge efforts in the last two, three years to support us more,” he said. “I hope it will continue.”
Grandi warned that growing divisions in the world could further affect global levels of displacement. “You have east-west, you have north-south, you have rich-poor, you have technologically advanced and technologically not advanced,” he said.
“This is something that seems to be the result of many things,” he said, including a shift toward what he described as a syndrome of “my country first.”
Solving complex global issues required cooperation, Grandi said. “You don’t solve climate change with my country first,” he said.
In a news conference on Monday, Grandi also expressed concern that the number of refugees and displaced people would only continue to rise. He pointed in particular to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, estimating that “almost 2 million people” have already been forced to flee their homes.
He said that the U.N.’s refugee agency was struggling with fundraising more than previous years, and that insufficient funding could impact its ability to support refugees and displaced people.
