Japan, which accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of 5,000 applications last year, will provide about $810 million in aid in response to refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.
Japan announced on Tuesday changes to its refugee system that activists said will make the country, which accepted less than a dozen asylum seekers last year, increasingly hard to reach for people in need of protection.
Japan and ally the United States can start making plans for a possible conflict with China after the expected enactment of defense legislation this week, but Japan will not be sending troops to back up U.S.-led operations against Islamic State.
More than half of voters in Japan are opposed to their government's plans to enact legislation this month that would allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two, a newspaper poll showed on Monday.
