residency on humanitarian grounds under (ii), as stated in sub-section (1), number 2,543 persons. The number of persons who arrived in Japan through third country resettlement under (iii) above is 123, as also stated in sub-section (1).164 This category of persons can be considered, depending on their individual circumstances, to be at risk of statelessness. However, as in Category C it is unknown how many persons falling within (i), (ii) and (iii) still reside in Japan. It cannot be known how many persons among them have acquired Japanese or another nationality or how many have given birth to how many children. (Nevertheless, for Indochinese refugees under (i), a certain number of them applied for refugee status after their arrival in Japan and were subsequently recognized, and thus a certain number of them has moved from Category D to Category C.) 5. Solutions for category D (1) Prevention Measures to prevent statelessness of persons falling within Category D, consisting of persons similarly situated as refugees, are in principle the same as those proposed for Category C [Refugees] above. (2) Protection It is essential that refugee status determination procedures are conducted in accordance with the object and purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention and that persons who qualify as refugees are duly recognized as such and are protected. This would result in persons recognized as refugees currently falling within Category D being “transferred” to Category C and benefitting from protection as Convention refugees. It is desirable that persons remaining within Category D be given protection as close as that for 1951 Convention refugees, considering that their status and circumstances are similar to refugees, including by applying Chapter 2 of the 1951 Refugee Convention by analogy wherever possible. Apart from the above, the establishment of a system to determine statelessness statuses and to protect stateless persons will ensure protection to some extent irrespective of the person’s status as a refugee. (C.f., Category A on how exactly the statelessness determination and protection system or the relevant systems related to residency status or special permission for residency should be.) (3) Reduction From the point of view of reducing statelessness, reforming the law to facilitate naturalization of stateless persons regardless of their place of birth will enable this 164 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, website; ibid. A total of 123 Myanamarese refugees (31 families) have been resettled from camps in Thailand over seven years, including the pilot period. 76