The justice ministry agreed to grant the family residency rights for one year after judges refused to rescind a deportation order but urged out-of-court negotiations to resolve the case.

"Due to humanitarian considerations, we will begin procedures to issue special residency status," Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama told reporters. "The status is for one year for now but they can extend it."

The family -- a 32-year-old Kurdish man of Turkish nationality, his 41-year-old Filipina wife and their seven-year-old daughter -- were ordered deported in 2004.

The man, whose family name is Taskin, said he feared "persecution" in Turkey because he had skipped his mandatory military service.

"We are relieved to hear that the minister approved residency status. Now we can settle the case with the government and Taskin's family can live together in Japan," the man's lawyer Yasuyoshi Hamano told AFP.

He said the case was a step forward for asylum seekers of different nationalities.

"I hope this will serve as a precedent for families in similar situations and that Japan will stop deporting family members to various countries," Hamano said.

Japan, which has strict controls on immigration, has faced criticism from human rights groups that it accepts few refugees despite championing programmes to help refugees overseas.

Japan in 2006 accepted only 34 political refugees out of 954 applications. More than 80 percent of those accepted were from Myanmar.

In 2005, Japan came under fire for deporting to Turkey two members of a Kurdish family even after the United Nations had recognised them as refugees.

Hamano said Japanese immigration policy still has problems because of its "premise of seeing those who apply for asylum simply as illegal residents because their visas expired."

"I hope immigration officers look at the reality of those families who have lived peacefully, often more than 10 years, without problems in Japan," he said.