Ukrainians being Whites are the sole reason why Japanese are willing to accept them as refugees. Other asylum seekers would be deported as it always has been.
Ayako Niijima, an officer at the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR), said the experience of asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East, whom her group mostly supports, were vastly different from that of the Ukrainian evacuees.
"We can't completely deny a racial role," she said.
"When people called last year to offer Ukrainians aid, we asked if they'd help our refugees, and many would say, 'Refugees other than Ukrainians are scary.'"