I didn&#8217;t want to be a lawyer. I want to help people who are refugees. I want to protect those who came to Japan from abroad to avoid danger, and those who risked their lives to escape from their homeland. To do this, I wanted to have a weapon called a lawyer. That&#8217;s why I became a lawyer.
Ms. Chie Komai says firmly. Most of her work is related to refugee applications and immigration procedures.
She also talks about Wishma, the Sri Lankan woman who lost her life at an immigration facility last March.
<figure id="attachment_225734" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1702px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-225734"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="57ccd57c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/149479c856dc2a706ffe2ec215167548.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-225734" class="wp-caption-text">Recently, a portion of her video was finally released to her family. The video, which was &#8220;edited,&#8221; showed an eye-opening event. The more I looked into it, the more I realized how horrible it was.</figcaption></figure>
 The more I looked into it, the more I realized that terrible things were happening. &#8220;The more I looked into it, the more I found that terrible things were happening. Each time, I thought it must be the last time. I don&#8217;t want to lose any more people.
Her mild expression clouded over as she spoke.
 When I contacted Wishma&#8217;s family, they said they wanted to know why her sister had to die. It&#8217;s true. And I said, &#8216;If she died of an illness, there must be medical records. If she died of an illness, there must be medical records, and if you look at the security camera footage, you should be able to see what she looked like. So, I want to check it. This may be a matter of course for the sisters living in Sri Lanka. But the system in Japan is different. Information is not easily disclosed. People are dying, but the reasons for their deaths are not disclosed, and even the exact circumstances are not known.
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From an international perspective, Japan&#8217;s &#8220;immigration administration&#8221; is quite unique.
 What is happening in the facilities of the Immigration Bureau is not normal. What is happening in the immigration facilities is extraordinary. When the detainees protest about it, they sometimes retaliate in surprisingly childish ways. It was a constant cycle.
 One of the people I worked with had escaped from a country in Africa. It was a country with extremely unstable political situation. If he stayed in his home country, there was a high possibility that he would be detained, tortured, and have his life taken away. That&#8217;s why they flee their homeland and go to other countries. Those who came to the United States or Europe with their friends from the motherland are accepted as refugees in those countries, get jobs there, and live with their families.
 But when he comes to Japan, all he does is live in a detention facility and on parole, and time slips away for five or ten years.
Why did he &#8220;escape&#8221; to Japan?
 I didn&#8217;t choose to come to Japan. I came here not because I chose Japan, but because it was the first country I could go to when I felt my life was in danger and I had to escape. In some cases, they could not find any other route to escape the country. In some cases, they were told that they would be escorted to Canada and left, but they were left behind at Narita.
Do these people regret &#8220;coming&#8221; to Japan?
 They regret coming to Japan? However, if the destination of your escape is the inhumane treatment at an immigration facility or the precarious situation of a provisional release, there is no help for you.
<h2>There is no reason not to make people happy.</h2>
In Canada, for example, there are programs to help people from other countries who want to settle down to live as &#8220;Canadian citizens.
 In Canada, for example, there is a program that helps people from other countries who want to settle down to live as Canadian citizens, &#8220;There is a reception center in the community, and members who can speak different languages help them build a foundation for their lives. When I was in Canada on a business trip once, the cab driver I happened to take suddenly said, &#8216;I was a refugee. He said, &#8220;I came to Canada and was protected, and now I am able to work and live like this. When I retire, I want to do my best for Canada.
 People who feel indebted to Japan for their protection will love Japan. The protection of refugees is an international obligation, but I think this will be an asset for Japan as well.
Currently, there are many foreigners who come to Japan under the name of &#8220;technical interns&#8221; and work as labor force.
 In many cases, the technical internship system has become a hotbed of human rights violations. The system itself is wrong.
 If you look at the name tag of the person working at the cash register of a convenience store, you will often see a name that looks like it might be a foreigner. I hear people say that Japanese people will lose their jobs if foreigners come to Japan, but is that true? The reality is that there are many workplaces, such as agriculture and nursing care, that are in short supply, and they cannot run without foreign labor.
 People from abroad can work in Japan and pay taxes. They will have families and live in local communities. I have no idea what kind of disadvantages there are to that.
 I don&#8217;t see any disadvantage in having a family, and if you have a child, there is no advantage in not making that child happy.
<h2>Isn&#8217;t this society scary?</h2>
I felt the power in each of her words. Ms. Komai originally wanted to become a researcher on refugees. However, as she saw the reality of the situation, she chose to become a lawyer and work directly with the refugees to fight for them.
 I am pained by the bashing of some people, as if weak people are beating up even weaker people. Of course, foreigners are not the only ones who are discriminated against and hurt.
 When I was in elementary school, I was bullied so badly that I even wanted to die. When I was about 10 years old, I felt a twisting pain in my body when people did not treat me as a person.
 I feel a twinge of pain when people don&#8217;t treat me as a person. I have always been aware that the most important thing is to be treated as a human being.
 What I am doing to people in other countries now may happen to me someday. When you think about it, isn&#8217;t this society scary?
It&#8217;s scary. I&#8217;m scared just thinking about being locked up in a small place, not being able to see anyone, and living alone for days or years.
 That&#8217;s right. Isolation is the scariest and most dangerous thing. That&#8217;s why when we go to the facility and visit them, it helps them a lot. That feeling of being all alone that I felt as a child. I wanted to die. But you can&#8217;t die. I had to live and be happy. I am glad that I did not die then. I want my clients to feel the same way.
 I can&#8217;t let any more people die at the Immigration Bureau.
On January 13, two of the victims filed a lawsuit against the government for damages under the Covenant on Civil Liberties, claiming that their unjust detention in an immigration facility violated international law. This is an unprecedented lawsuit aimed at &#8220;changing the history of immigration detention. Ms. Komai is, of course, one of the lawyers.
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 It was the Morozovs from Russia who introduced the custom of Valentine&#8217;s Day chocolates to Japan. Mixing is an enriching thing. It&#8217;s not just about the people closest to you within a three-meter radius, but also about the people beyond that radius, and understanding and respecting them. It is not only for someone else&#8217;s sake, but also for our own. Because a society that is difficult for someone else to live in is also difficult for me to live in.
Ms. Tomokai Komai, a lawyer, walks forward carrying a large bag. When her cell phone rings on Sunday mornings, she feels anxious, thinking that something might have happened to her client. I want to end this society,&#8221; she said.
I want to create a society where everyone is treated and respected as a human being. That is Mr. Komai&#8217;s &#8220;dream. It should also be the dream of all of us.
<figure id="attachment_225920" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 4032px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-225920"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="46406559"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/IMG_0414.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-225920" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Komai&#8217;s eyes are straight ahead. Mr. Komai&#8217;s words after seeing Ms. Wyshma&#8217;s video made me feel a sense of dread. Something like this must never happen again!</figcaption></figure>

 TEN

 I didn't become a lawyer because I wanted to. I didn't become a lawyer to become a lawyer. I don't want to be a lawyer, but I want to help people who are refugees, people who came to Japan from abroad to avoid danger, people who risked their lives to escape from their homeland. That is why I am a lawyer.

The dream of Chie Komai, a lawyer who “treats people as people.

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