Ogata urges Japan to accept more refugees

According to UNHCR statistics, Japan recognized only 91 asylum seekers as refugees during a 10-year period between 1992 and 2001, while many other advanced nations opened their doors to tens of thousands of refugees.

In the same period, Britain recognized 92,669, Canada 129,111, France 61,913, Germany 165,211, Italy 7,151 and the United States 113,537.
In other words, Japan has accepted 1000 times less refugees than Britain, which is has only 2/3 its land area. England alone, where 5/6 of the population lives, is scarely a third the size of Japan. We often hear Japanese saying that their country is small and overcrowded, which is true if you compare it to the US, Canada or Australia, but a non-sense by European standard. Japan is bigger than any European country, except France and Spain.

That also mean that the UK as recognised in average 25 refugees a day over the last 10 years. Every 4 days, more refugees are accepted in Britain than in Japan in 10 years. Startling.