Staff writer An advocate of foreigners' rights says he has seen indications that Japanese authorities are beginning to regard those who overstay their visas as human beings -- not as mere laborers or scofflaws. However, Katsuo Yoshinari, head of the Asian People's Friendship Society, said there is a long way to go before the human rights of all foreigners with established lives in Japan are guaranteed. Earlier this month, his group helped four Iranian families, a total of 16 people who had illegally overstayed their visas, to acquire special permission from the Justice Ministry to stay in Japan. This set the precedent for overstaying foreigners who had no Japanese relatives to win legitimate residence status. While welcoming the decision as a major breakthrough, Yoshinari said he is determined to push further and urge the government to set clear criteria for granting such permission. "Residence status is the most fundamental human right that must be granted to anyone who has established his or her life here," he said. "We must further work to push the government to establish clear standards for amnesty for those saddled with visaless status." Currently, no written standard exists for granting permission, leaving the decision solely to the justice minister's discretion. Yoshinari claims that the lack of a written standard in such a critical human rights issue is against the principle of a legally governed democracy. He says stipulating standards for granting residence status is the first step toward assuring foreigners' human rights. Since the four Iranian families acquired visas, his group has received more than 100 calls from other individuals seeking legitimate residence status. The group plans to help about 50 foreigners bring a joint petition for residence status. Yoshinari hopes this will also prompt clarification of the ministry's stance toward granting such status to foreigners who have no Japanese relatives. "That way, foreigners could see whether they are eligible and decide for themselves whether to seek the status or leave," he said. Being granted such status is the last hope of legitimacy for people who cannot have their expired visas renewed, he said. The Justice Ministry's decision in favor of the four families reportedly took into account their children being too old to adapt to a new life in their home country. The move suggests a new level of tolerance in Japan's immigration policy, according to legal experts. Yoshinari said the decision marked a departure from long-standing immigration policy, which disregarded the human rights of overstaying foreigners and regarded them as expendable laborers. For many overstaying foreigners, Yoshinari is more than just someone to turn to in seeking residence status. An activist since he was a student, 49-year-old Yoshinari devoted himself to political and labor causes until the early-1980s. When those movements lost momentum in the mid-80s, through Bangladeshi friends he became aware of the difficulties that undocumented foreign workers face. No social welfare, not even medical or labor insurance, was available to them, and their lives were always under a cloud of job insecurity and the threat of sudden deportation, Yoshinari said. As a result, he established APFS in 1989 in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward to provide counseling and comprehensive assistance to this group of foreigners, addressing such diverse concerns as labor negotiations and marriage. APFS is run on donations and 1,000 yen monthly fees from some 400 foreigners. Yoshinari receives a fixed annual salary of less than 3 million yen, he said, leaving him largely dependent on his wife's income to support their family. He has two sons in high school. Taghibeigloo Shahrokh, whose family acquired residence status on Feb. 14, described Yoshinari as a "true volunteer," who puts his life on the line to help foreigners. "Besides the fact that he helped us acquire visas, I am personally glad to meet a Japanese man like Yoshinari, who made me respect the people of Japan and partially helped me regard Japan as my second homeland," Shahrokh said. Yoshinari said he is not certain if Japan's entire immigration policy should be overhauled, saying this would require a national debate. His goal, he said, is to ensure the rights of foreigners who have lived here for years and have established lives here, not to push the government into reviewing its immigration policy. "I only believe that the policy should take into account the rights of existing foreigners here. It is a starting point for a democratic country, and unless we do it, we have no right to even discuss the future immigration policy," he said.