KOBE -- For over six years, 40-year-old Peruvian Jose could enjoy his stay in Japan, where he had a stable job at a leather processing factory and his family had a peaceful life in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture.
Now every night, Jose, not his real name, cannot help but worry about his family's fate. It is all up to the justice minister to decide either to grant Jose, his Peruvian wife and three daughters special residence permits or to deport them.
The family's world practically changed overnight one day in November, when an official at the Immigration Bureau's Kobe office called Jose's employer to ask if his employee had overstayed his visa. The official said the office received a report about Jose and his family members being over-stayers.