Kurds do not have a majority nation state and live in Kurdistan, a region that includes Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq in the Middle East and South Caucasus.
This was reportedly in part fueled by Turkish people spreading anti-Kurdish messaging in the Japanese language using the social media platform X. Kurds have been receiving death threats and calls for their mass deportation.
It is reported that following the implementation of the revised Act, the suspension of deportation during the application for refugee status will in principle be limited to twice, and the number of provisional releasees is expected to decrease.
[21] Most Kurds in Japan are from shepherding villages in Southeast Turkey and reside in the Warabi and Kawaguchi areas of Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo.
Some Kurdish people arrived in Japan in order to request refugee status; citing human rights abuses in Turkey and Iraq.
[4] The Asahi Shimbun found that posts on social media platform X about Kurdish people in Japan went from 40,000 in March 2023 to 240,000 in April 2023, to 1.08 million by July.
[32] The reputation of the Kurdistan Workers' Party ("PKK"), which is considered by Turkey to be a terrorist organization, has affected Kurds in Japan.
The Japan Kurdish Cultural Organization has denied links to the PKK, but Japanese social media posts reportedly often generalize Kurds as being terrorists regardless.
[4] Some of the Kurdish people in Saitama had friction with residents over noise complaints and adherence to garbage collection rules.
[4] Japanese local government employees reported being inundated with phone calls to expel the Kurds or foreigners in general.
One man was charged with sending death threats to a Kurdish organization; he reportedly vowed to "kill all the Kurds and feed them to the pigs".