Sophia Refugee Support Group (SRSG) is a student-run, Refugee and Asylum Seeker support group, based in Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, which aims to provide support to refugees in Japan, in response to the rapidly increasing number of asylum seekers in the country and to be the bridge connecting refugees and Japanese citizens to help create a Japan that is more open, multicultural, and welcoming to all regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. The group works towards changing the commonly held perception of refugees as “difficult people” to potential social, civic, and economic contributors in the country by combining research and action: to further understand the actual needs of the refugees and coupling it with action-based efforts to make a difference in their lives. SRSG’s main activities include monthly refugee cafes, regular Japanese language classes, weekly detention center visits, awareness workshops, school visits, document translations, and fundraising events. The monthly refugee cafes held in Sophia University allow refugees, asylum seekers, and students to interact, enjoying the different café themes each month (e.g. setsubun, tanabata). Because of the multilingual membership of SRSG, members conduct Japanese language classes to support the refugees’ social integration in Japan. Pre-COVID, the group visited the Shinagawa Detention Center 4-5 times a week to meet and talk to the detained asylum seekers. Moreover, members of the group translate asylum-seeker documents to and from Japanese. SRSG has also collaborated with organizations like UNHCR, Amnesty International, EdgeOf, Discover Deep Japan, and Japan Association of Refugees to organize events to spread awareness about the refugee situation in Japan, and visited high schools from all around the country including Okinawa Shogaku High School, American School in Japan, Urawa Ichijo High School, and Tamagawa Academy to shed light on the plight of refugees in Japan.
