According to these statistics, as of December 2016, 594 people among the “resident foreigners”40 and 626 people among the “total number of resident foreigners”41 were registered as “stateless” persons.42 (As of December 2015, 573 people among resident foreigners and 603 among the total number of foreigners,43 and as of December 2014, 598 people among resident foreigners and 631 among the total number of resident foreigners were registered as stateless persons.)44 The Statistics on Foreign National Residents, however, entails two issues. Firstly, the statistics count only foreigners with residence permits. Before July 2012, Alien Registration certificates were issued to all foreigners staying in Japan for over 90 days regardless of whether they had residence permits or not, and the statistics on all registered foreigners was being published.45 However, the Law for Partial Amendment to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Persons who have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan entered into force on 1 July 2012. The Alien Registration Act was abolished and the system of foreigner residence cards and special permanent resident certificates was introduced. This resulted in the number of stateless persons without residency permits not being reflected in official statistics. The second problem is that the determination of nationality is conducted in an equivocal manner. It 40 This is the total of mid- to long-term residents and special permanent residents. “Mid- to long-term residents” are foreign nationals (i.e., persons without Japanese nationality) residing with a status of residence in Japan with the exception of the following: (i) a person who has been granted a period of stay of not more than 3 months, (ii) a person who has been granted the status of residence of “Temporary Visitor”, (iii) a person who has been granted the status of residence of “Diplomat” or “Official”, (iv) a person provided for by an Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice as equivalent to a person listed in any of the preceding three items (i.e., staff members of the Japanese office of the Association of East Asian Relations or the Permanent General Mission of the Palestine in Japan, or family members thereof, who have been granted the status of residence of “Designated Activities”, and (v) special permanent residents (see ICRRA, Article 19-3). 41 This is the total number of zairyuu gaikokujin (resident foreigners) which includes categories (i) to (iv) in note 40. 42 Ministry of Justice, “Zairyuu Gaikokujin Toukei [Statistics on Foreign National Residents], December 2016” (published in March 2017), at http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001177523. Among the 626 foreign national residents registered as stateless in the December 2016 Statistics on Foreign National Residents, almost 20% (107) have the status of residence of “special permanent residents”, which is for persons who originate from former colonial regions such as Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula and their descendants. 43 Ministry of Justice, “Zairyuu Gaikokujin Toukei [Statistics on Foreign National Residents], December 2015” (published in April 2016), at http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001177523. 44 Ministry of Justice, “Zairyuu Gaikokujin Toukei [Statistics on Foreign National Residents], December 2014” (April 2015), at http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001133760. 45 1,100 persons were registered as stateless in the last Statistics on Registered Foreign Nationals before the system was abolished. Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, “Touroku Gaikokujin Toukei 2011 Nen Nenpou [Annual Statistics on Registered Foreign Nationals 2011]” (November 2012), at http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001111183. 31