The incident in which four North Korean citizens who had fled from their country entered a Japanese school in Beijing and asked for asylum in Japan has posed a sobering question concerning Japan's refugee policy. Acting on lessons from the incident at Japan's consulate general in Shenyang last May, the Japanese and Chinese governments this time have quickly taken measures to prevent the matter from developing into a diplomatic issue.

The problem is that the Japanese government does not have a policy for dealing with ordinary people who flee from the North and seek asylum in Japan. In the latest case, officials concerned reportedly favor granting the four persons asylum in South Korea. Because the number of such asylum seekers is expected to increase, however, the government should promptly establish policies for accepting such refugees, including procedures for recognizing refugees.

Since early last year, there have been several cases of asylum seekers rushing into foreign diplomatic establishments and foreign schools in China, but this is the first time that a Japanese school has been involved. The Japanese school in question is a quasi-diplomatic facility attached to the Japanese embassy. Japan and China, however, have confirmed that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which recognizes diplomatic immunity and the extraterritorial status of government establishments, does not apply to the school. Immediately after the incident, therefore, the embassy moved the four persons to the embassy.