My kids are too scared to go outside': Kurdish migrants face hostility as Japan wrestles with demographic crisis

"I would rather die than go back to Turkey, says Ali*. But life is also getting worse here. I can see that our Japanese neighbours are much cooler towards us these days. Some refuse even to greet us. More than a decade after he arrived in Japan with his wife and their two eldest children, Ali is fighting a battle on two fronts a decision on his application for refugee status, and rising hostility towards his family and other members of the country's Kurdish community."

"In July, Ali's sons were playing in a park near their home in Kawaguchi, near Tokyo, when they were approached by a man. According to a statement Ali made to police, the man struck the younger child, a primary school pupil, in the face, knocking him to the ground. He then yelled in Japanese: "Foreigners, go back to your country!" Weeks later, Ali confronted the man when he reappeared in the park, demanding to know why he had assaulted his son."

"The man denied he had deliberately harmed the child, but added: If it wasn't for the law, I'd kill you people. The alleged assault was the latest incident targeting Kurdish residents in the Tokyo commuter towns of Kawaguchi and neighbouring Warabi where halal minimarts and kebab shops share space with convenience stores and ramen joints turning them into the epicentre of a bitter debate over Japan's growing foreign-born population."

Ali, a Kurdish migrant who arrived in Japan more than a decade ago with his wife and children, is awaiting a decision on his refugee application while experiencing increasing hostility. His children have faced name-calling and exclusion at school. In July, a man allegedly struck his younger son in a park, shouted "Foreigners, go back to your country!", and later threatened, "If it wasn't for the law, I'd kill you people." Kawaguchi and neighbouring Warabi have seen multiple incidents targeting Kurdish residents. Japan's foreign-born population reached 3.8 million and could rise to 10% by 2070, making migration a key election issue.

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