It's tough for asylum-seekers to keep their hopes up in Japan, where only 1 in every 1,000 applicants was granted refugee status last year.
While waiting, which takes more than 10 months on average, they practically have nothing to do. Only those whom the Justice Ministry deems highly likely to be refugees are allowed to find work after the two-month initial screening.
But instead of lamenting labor-scarce Japan's notoriously strict policy, Sayaka Watanabe, 27, focuses on how to integrate asylum-seekers with society sooner by offering them a place to stay and finding jobs for those eligible to work.
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