Three foreign nationals sued Japan on Monday, accusing the national government and local authorities of condoning the use of illegal police interrogations based on racial “profiling”, Reuters reported.

Lawyers for the three say their complaint is the first of its kind to be filed in a Japanese court as the island nation sees a sharp increase in the number of foreigners it is taking in to fill vacant jobs due to a long-term demographic decline.

The lawsuit also comes amid renewed debate about what it means to be and look Japanese after a young woman born in Ukraine and naturalized in Japan won the Miss Japan pageant last week.

Lawyers for the three men filed a complaint in a court in the capital Tokyo, demanding that the government and local authorities in several Japanese regions recognize that police stop and question people based solely on their race, nationality or ethnicity.

The applicants claim that they suffered moral damage as a result of repeated police interrogations, which they claimed were conducted solely on the basis of their ethnicity. Lawyers for the men say the practice violates the Japanese Constitution.

The men claim they were stopped by Japanese police just because of how they look

One of the plaintiffs, a man of Indian origin who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years and obtained permanent resident status, claims that he was repeatedly questioned by the police and was afraid to leave his home as a result.

“Until recently, I didn’t know what it meant to be isolated from society. “I feel like I’m hiding in my apartment every time I finish work,” says the man, who gave his name only as Matthew.

Saeed Zain, who was born in Pakistan but became a Japanese citizen after moving to the country with his family as a child, said he hoped the case would lead to positive changes in society as the number of Japanese born overseas is on the rise.

Like Matthew, the third claimant did not want to be named for fear of persecution. But he, who goes by the name Maurice, says he hopes the lawsuit will bring the problem to the Japanese public’s attention and eventually lead to a solution.

“I want them (the Japanese) to understand that this happens every day, it’s an everyday fact, and we have to do something to prevent it,” Maurice said of stops and interrogations related to racial profiling.

The complaint also seeks 3 million yen (about $20,250) for each plaintiff.