As the data shows, this is very different than the refugee crisis facing Europe. Most applicants do not come from Muslim majority countries, and the vast majority of them entered Japan legally. Japan is not facing huge numbers of people who enter the country without visas and apply for refugee status.
The Asahi Shimbun has reported that a significant number of refugee applicants are exploiting the system to temporarily work in Japan. If an applicant already has a valid visa to live in Japan at the time of his/her refugee application, the Japanese government often grants the applicant permission to work while the application is being processed. Due to the slowness of Japan’s bureaucracy, it can sometimes take several years. While this kind of abuse is worthy of concern, it isn’t particularly worthy of comparison to the situation in Europe. Almost all of these applicants will have their applications rejected and will be forced to leave Japan. They seem aware of the expected result, so they are doing this to temporarily earn money that they can send back to their home countries.
This is not at all similar to what is going on in Europe. The number of refugee applicants in Japan is tiny. Even if the number increased in 2015, and even if Japan suddenly changed its policy and started accepting more than 1% of applicants, it would be nothing compared to the masses of people entering Europe. Under Japan’s current system, refugee applicants can only expect to be allowed to live in the country for a few years. They will have to leave Japan when their applications are rejected, and Japanese authorities enforce their rulings. It isn’t like Europe, which seems to be opening itself up to allowing hundreds of thousands of refugee applicants, many of whom will have their refugee applications accepted, and will be allowed to live in Europe for the foreseeable future.