![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8M3A9309-683x1024.jpeg\")
Inside\u00a0 the Tokyo Camii & Diyanet Turkish Culture Center in Tokyo on March 9, 2026, during Ramadan. (Photo by Abigail Wilt\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n
But this immigrant group has become the center of a political firestorm in recent years, as Kurdish communities find themselves a frequent\u00a0 target of anti-foreigner rhetoric. Many of them have reported facing rampant hate speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organization Together with Kurds in Japan provides assistance to this community, like hosting affordable Japanese language classes on the weekends. The group leases a small classroom adorned with posters of the Japanese alphabet and Kurdish films, bookshelves holding workbooks for the adults and picture books for children, with stuffed animals placed on top.<\/p>\n
But they also have binders holding dozens of hate speech messages sent by email.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nukui Tatsuhiro, the organization\u2019s founder, said this rhetoric makes him feel unsafe in the work he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several of the messages collected by Tatsuhiro call Kurds \u201cpigs,\u201d \u201cgarbage,\u201d \u201ccriminals\u201d and \u201cinsects.\u201d Others go after the organization and its staff, stating that people who support this kind of work are traitors of Japan.<\/p>\n
Vakkas Colak, the chairman of the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association, said he believes that the Kurds are just an easy target for creating a politicized immigrant issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Japan, Kurds are almost always denied refugee status. Only one Kurdish man has been granted this protection, while the rest remain without status.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the Kurds) do not have a country. There will not become a diplomatic issue,\u201d he said of the Japanese position. \u201cThey are very weak in terms of residential status. Asylum seekers are not so stable. They are Middle Eastern. It\u2019s easy (to target them).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Colak, the online hate campaign that has victimized them through emails was \u201clike organized crime.\u201d He said he thinks Japanese far-right nationalists are behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Colak, Kurds are characterized as criminals. They\u2019re accused of everything, from shoplifting to improper garbage disposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The vocabulary in the xenophobic campaigns, Colak said, is directly inspired by the Trump administration\u2019s anti-immigrant rhetoric. He said this speech is \u201ccreated by the U.S. and sent all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NIK7948-1024x684.jpeg\")
Vakkas Colak stands in front of Happy Kebab in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, on March 11, 2026. (Photo by Gaige Davila\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n
Together with Kurds in Japan keeps a record of which politicians have campaigned on anti-foreigner platforms or have targeted the community. One of them has used the \u201cJapan First\u201d slogan, echoing Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kawaguchi officials responded by email to an interview request stating that the city is not in a position to provide comments on the matter of the screening and immigration process of the Kurds living in the area, which is administered by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the agency stated that the \u201cstatusless\u201d situation of Kurds follows a strict interpretation of international asylum law and does not represent a failure of the Japanese immigration system.<\/p>\n
Sohrab Ahmadian is a postdoctoral research fellow at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and an ethnic Kurd from Iran. He explained that most of the Kurds in Japan are visa overstayers or provisional release status holders, or karihomen in Japanese.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get karihomen, you have no permit to work, no health insurance and also some restrictions traveling to other prefectures, you should be in limited areas,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd every one month, you have to go to declare and show yourself to the immigration bureau and immigration offices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahmadian said that many Japanese people see Kurds and other immigrant populations as a way out of the rampant labor shortage. They can get specialized work visas that allow them to live in Japan, but they don\u2019t provide them with residency status.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t matter how long you’re going to stay here, you will never become Japanese, right? Maybe even I can, in the future, I can get a Japanese passport, but getting a Japanese passport still doesn’t mean you’re Japanese, you know?\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahmadian has lived and studied in Japan for seven years \u2013 and he can\u2019t go home to Iran as the conflict between his homeland and Israel and the U.S. continues. He said he eventually wants to return to his alma mater, the University of Tehran, but that seems out of reach right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, there is a country at war and not any stable situation to go back there,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t know actually until when the situation will be more stable to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the Kurdish community as a whole here, he said, helps one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colak agreed. With work \u2014 primarily in construction or demolition \u2014 with health care, with fostering belonging and a sense of place, they reach out their hands to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tatsuhiro says many in the Kurdish community feel anxious or that they\u2019re in danger, but the police can\u2019t take any action since discrimination is not a crime in Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, he said, his organization\u2019s work will continue.<\/p>\n
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2026\/04\/29\/kurds-tokyo-face-racism\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org”>Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/favicon1.png?resize=85%2C85&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKurdish community in Tokyo faces anti-immigrant rhetoric<\/p>\n
Abigail Beck, Cronkite News
\nApril 29, 2026<\/p>\n
(Audio by Abigail Beck\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)TOKYO \u2013 Just over an hour’s train ride outside of Tokyo are the quiet suburbs of Warabi and Kawaguchi, two neighboring cities that have been home to immigrant communities for decades.<\/p>\n
Among them are the Kurds, who originate from a mountainous region in West Asia, residing in parts of modern-day T\u00fcrkiye (Turkey), Iraq, Iran and Syria. A majority of Kurds are Muslim, and they represent a minority ethnic group across those countries.<\/p>\n
According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, there are between 2,000 and 3,000 Kurds living in Japan \u2013 a fraction of the country\u2019s population of a little more than 120 million people.<\/p>\n
But this immigrant group has become the center of a political firestorm in recent years, as Kurdish communities find themselves a frequent\u00a0 target of anti-foreigner rhetoric. Many of them have reported facing rampant hate speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organization Together with Kurds in Japan provides assistance to this community, like hosting affordable Japanese language classes on the weekends. The group leases a small classroom adorned with posters of the Japanese alphabet and Kurdish films, bookshelves holding workbooks for the adults and picture books for children, with stuffed animals placed on top.<\/p>\n
But they also have binders holding dozens of hate speech messages sent by email.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nukui Tatsuhiro, the organization\u2019s founder, said this rhetoric makes him feel unsafe in the work he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several of the messages collected by Tatsuhiro call Kurds \u201cpigs,\u201d \u201cgarbage,\u201d \u201ccriminals\u201d and \u201cinsects.\u201d Others go after the organization and its staff, stating that people who support this kind of work are traitors of Japan.<\/p>\n
Vakkas Colak, the chairman of the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association, said he believes that the Kurds are just an easy target for creating a politicized immigrant issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Japan, Kurds are almost always denied refugee status. Only one Kurdish man has been granted this protection, while the rest remain without status.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the Kurds) do not have a country. There will not become a diplomatic issue,\u201d he said of the Japanese position. \u201cThey are very weak in terms of residential status. Asylum seekers are not so stable. They are Middle Eastern. It\u2019s easy (to target them).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Colak, the online hate campaign that has victimized them through emails was \u201clike organized crime.\u201d He said he thinks Japanese far-right nationalists are behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Colak, Kurds are characterized as criminals. They\u2019re accused of everything, from shoplifting to improper garbage disposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The vocabulary in the xenophobic campaigns, Colak said, is directly inspired by the Trump administration\u2019s anti-immigrant rhetoric. He said this speech is \u201ccreated by the U.S. and sent all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Together with Kurds in Japan keeps a record of which politicians have campaigned on anti-foreigner platforms or have targeted the community. One of them has used the \u201cJapan First\u201d slogan, echoing Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kawaguchi officials responded by email to an interview request stating that the city is not in a position to provide comments on the matter of the screening and immigration process of the Kurds living in the area, which is administered by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the agency stated that the \u201cstatusless\u201d situation of Kurds follows a strict interpretation of international asylum law and does not represent a failure of the Japanese immigration system.<\/p>\n
Sohrab Ahmadian is a postdoctoral research fellow at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and an ethnic Kurd from Iran. He explained that most of the Kurds in Japan are visa overstayers or provisional release status holders, or karihomen in Japanese.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get karihomen, you have no permit to work, no health insurance and also some restrictions traveling to other prefectures, you should be in limited areas,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd every one month, you have to go to declare and show yourself to the immigration bureau and immigration offices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahmadian said that many Japanese people see Kurds and other immigrant populations as a way out of the rampant labor shortage. They can get specialized work visas that allow them to live in Japan, but they don\u2019t provide them with residency status.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t matter how long you’re going to stay here, you will never become Japanese, right? Maybe even I can, in the future, I can get a Japanese passport, but getting a Japanese passport still doesn’t mean you’re Japanese, you know?\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahmadian has lived and studied in Japan for seven years \u2013 and he can\u2019t go home to Iran as the conflict between his homeland and Israel and the U.S. continues. He said he eventually wants to return to his alma mater, the University of Tehran, but that seems out of reach right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, there is a country at war and not any stable situation to go back there,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t know actually until when the situation will be more stable to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the Kurdish community as a whole here, he said, helps one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colak agreed. With work \u2014 primarily in construction or demolition \u2014 with health care, with fostering belonging and a sense of place, they reach out their hands to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tatsuhiro says many in the Kurdish community feel anxious or that they\u2019re in danger, but the police can\u2019t take any action since discrimination is not a crime in Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, he said, his organization\u2019s work will continue.<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.<\/p>\n
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