By KOSUKE TAUCHI/ Staff Writer
September 7, 2022 at 15:52 JST
The Justice Ministry building in Tokyo that accommodates the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Immigration authorities on Sept. 7 banned a Japanese language school in Fukuoka from accepting new foreign enrollees after a Vietnamese student who wanted to quit was locked in room and monitored to prevent his escape.
The Immigration Services Agency of Japan said the 630 or so current students at the Nishinihon International Education Institute in Fukuoka will be encouraged to transfer to other Japanese language schools.
According to the agency, the trouble started after a Vietnamese student in his 20s expressed his desire to quit the school in October 2021.
On Oct. 25 that year, staff members asked the student about his wishes in a faculty room.
But when the student tried to leave, staff members detained the student for few hours in the room by using a metal chain and a padlock.
Other school workers were in the room, but nobody tried to free the student.
After the student returned to a dormitory room in the evening, staff monitored him from outside the room to ensure he would not run away, according to the agency.
This action continued until around noon on Oct. 26.
The agency said the school has admitted to detaining and monitoring the Vietnamese man but said it was “a prank by the staff.”
The student was not injured.
The agency said it has not found similar incidents at the school.
The agency has a list of around 820 Japanese language schools nationwide that can take in foreign students.
The Fukuoka school was deleted from the list as of Sept. 7 for violating the human rights of the Vietnamese student.
Once removed from the list, a school cannot admit foreign students for the following five years.
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