The US, by contrast, granted asylum to 21,171 refugees
in 2013; Germany accepted 10,915 and France 9,099. Even
South Korea, which has strict asylum laws, approved 57 applications, according to Kazuyoshi Harada, writing for the Nippon.com website. By the end of 2014, he said, Japan had approved a cumulative total of just 633 applications for refugee status.