Thank you for your continued understanding and support for the activities of Pathways Japan (hereafter referred to as PJ).
PJ’s mission is to create a society where people with refugee experience are widely accepted. As you may know, following the political upheaval in Afghanistan in August, calls for evacuation have been received from people in Japan who are involved in the past from various parts of Japan.
The Government of Japan has been working to evacuate former staff of embassies and other organisations, and the private sector has also begun to call in former international students, former staff of NGOs and their families, as well as universities, companies, organisations and individuals, in response to requests.
As various challenges are expected to be faced in accepting these people, including their families, into Japanese society, PJ believes that it can contribute to the civil society-led acceptance of people with refugee backgrounds by sharing its past experience in accepting Syrian people.
The situation on the ground is still in flux, but if these people are to be accepted in Japan in the future from a humanitarian perspective, it is the responsibility of Japanese society to have a system in which the government and civil society work together and cooperate to accept them.
Therefore, today PJ, together with three voluntary NGO organisations, jointly acted as the initiating organisation and submitted a request to the Government.
Despite the limited two-day period, the request was supported by 609 people (as of 10am on 9 September) from 65 organisations, including university staff, experts, NGOs, NPOs, citizens and students.
For the request form, please see below.
We will continue to report on progress on the PJ website.
Updated 17 Sept (Fri).
As of 14 Sept, 82 supporting organisations and 739 supporters. In addition to Kobe Institute of Information Science and Technology and Shimane University, we have received the support of a large number of researchers, mainly those who have been involved in accepting international students in the past, as well as 10 companies including Rush Japan LLC, other legal professionals, and many organisations from foundations, NGOs and NPOs, including regional network NGOs and other organisations operating in Japan and abroad. The list of endorsing organisations (14 September)