The ZENGEIREN TribunePage 2 June1,2004 vol 32

The ZENGEIREN Tribune Page 3 June1,2004 vol 32

Might Doom the Industry

Japanese Congress finally passed the revised Immigration Control Act on May 27, 2004. The revised act includesso called the “System of Immediate Cancellation of Foreigner’s Residential Status”. The system enables Japanto immediately cancel the status of foreigners who declared false purpose of entering Japan, even if his/herterm is not completed. We are seriously concerned that the system will affect the industry. Here are the texts ofthe revised part of the Immigration Control Act.

Revised part of Immigration Control Act (Cancellation of the Residential Status of a Foreigner)

Article 22-4If he or she belongs to any of the following, theMinister of Justice may cancel the residential statusof the foreigner who is supposed to stay in Japan witha status defined in the separate sheet 1 or 2 of the Act(except those who are entitled to be a “Refugee”according to Article 62-2-1 of the Act).

1. He or she was entitled to enter Japan afterdeclaring a false reason or exercising a fraudulentway.

2. If he or she was entitled to enter Japan after

declaring two or more of false reasons or exercisinga fraudulent ways, the latest false declaration ofthe reason or fraudulent way he or she exercisedshall be under the consideration. And the same isapplied on No.3 and No.4 of this Act.

3. He or she was entitled to enter Japan by declaringa false reason or exercising a fraudulent way notspecified in No.2 above.

4. He or she was entitled to enter Japan bypresenting a false document(s) or picture(s) thatis not specified in No.3 above.

5. He or she was entitled to stay in Japan byobtaining the status specified in the 1 of theseparate sheet of the Act, but he or she does notengage in this activity for three months or longer

( except he or she has a justified reason for notengaging in that activity).

(2) When the Minister of Justice issues the order ofcanceling his or her status, he must have anImmigration officer hear the foreigner’s opinion

(3) When the Minister of Justice has the Immigrationofficer hear the foreigner’s opinion, the Minister mustnotice the foreigner the date and place of the hearingbeforehand.

(4)The foreigner or his/her representative may appearon the specified date as in (3) above to describe his/her opinion or present the proof.

(5)If the foreigner does not appear and describe his/her opinion, the Minister may cancel his/her statuswithout hearing his/her opinion.

(6)The Minister of Justice shall specify the date theforeigner exit Japan, and it shall be within 30 dayswhen the Minister cancels the status.

(7)When the Minister specifies the date as in (6), the

Minister may impose the foreigner some restrictionssuch as his/her place of living or his/her range ofactivity.

System of Canceling Foreigner’s Residential Status

The ZENGEIREN TribunePage 6 June1,2004 vol 32

The ZENGEIREN TribunePage 5 June1,2004 vol 32

Conspiracy between Indonesian Immigration and Local Artist Agency?Be sure to Obtain Business visa before Holding an Audition in Indonesia

Japanese Artist Agency Representatives were Arrested at Indonesia

In March this year, 6 or 7 officials of Indonesian

Immigration bureau from Jakarta suddenly

appeared in the site of the artist audition to take

passports away from Japanese promoters and

ordered them to appear in the Immigration office

next day, and they demanded the Japanese money.

The first incident was as follows: The promoter

and the club owner from Kanto region of Japan were

having an artist audition in Indonesia. Then

Indonesian Immigration officials suddenly appeared

in the site and took away their passports and made

two Japanese to stay in Indonesia for one week. The

Japanese were forced to pay as much as 800

thousand yen to the Indonesian officials to get their

passports back and finally they were allowed to go

back to Japan.

Another incident was as follows: A club owner from

Kyusyu Japan was having an audition in an office.

Suddenly six men, seemingly Immigration officials,

demanded the Japanese to show his passport, and

they took away his passport and ordered him to

appear in the Immigration office next day. He was

demanded to pay 400 thousand yen.

In both cases Indonesian officials took money

away from the Japanese by intimidating them of

not obtaining the business visa.

But why did they know when and where the

auditions would be held? We are suspicious of the

conspiracy between Indonesian Immigration officials

and local Indonesian traders.

Zengeiren asked the Foreign Ministry of Japan to

conduct investigation on these incidents. The section chief

of the Protection of Japanese Nationals Overseas replied

to our questionnaire as follows:

1. Japanese embassy in Jakarta asked the government

of Indonesia to investigate the incidents.

2. The director of Indonesian Immigration bureau

answered the results as follows:

a. The bureau obtained the information that three

Japanese were having an artist audition without

taking the business visa. Therefore they requested

three Japanese to appear in the Immigration bureau’s

office to strongly guide them to visit Indonesia with

the business visa next time.

b. The Immigration bureau of Indonesia never demanded

money from the three.

Indonesian government reported as above through

Japanese ministry of foreign affairs, and they strongly

denied that the Immigration official took money.

However, Zengeiren’s investigation is revealing that one

Immigration official is a relative of a staff of a local overseas

artist agency, which make us suspect existence of the

conspiracy between them. Therefore, Zengeiren strongly

requested with a written document to Indonesian

association of artist agencies (ASPIND) April 13 to exclude

local bad traders.

We strongly recommend any Japanese agency officials

and club owners to take business visa before they go to

Indonesia for overseas artist audition. It is only required

20 thousand yen to obtain the business visa that is effective

one year.

Incredible incidents happened. The officials of Immigration Bureau in Indonesia and the local productionagencies conspired to entrap the officials of Japanese overseas artist agencies to take money away fromthem. It is true that the Japanese officials did not obtain the business visa to hold an audition, but theyare wondering why the local Immigration knew the date of the audition. They are suspicious that the

local Indonesian artist agencies informed it to Immigration officials.

NEWS FILE

The ZENGEIREN TribunePage 6 June1,2004 vol 32

Latest News from the Industry

Inspection against the False Japanese DescentStrengthenedAfter there was a crime that some Filipinos falsely declaredthemselves as Japanese decent to obtain visa for particularpurpose (the residential visa), the Ministry of Justice directedlocal Immigration bureau offices May 10, 2004　to strengthenthe inspection against Filipinos who try to land Japan withthe particular purpose visas. The bureau will immediatelydeport them if the Filipino is not a Japanese descent.Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper revealed that 13 Filipinos boughtJapanese register from Japanese decent Filipinos living inthe Philippines for the purpose of illegally entering Japan.(May 11, Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper)

The government of Japan founded an institution April 5,2004 named “Liaison Conference of the Measure for Traffickingin Humans” organized by directors from Ministries of Police,Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Public Welfare (presided byTaniuchi Shotaro and Fushiya Kazuhiko, both vice chiefcabinet secretaries).

Recently there are serious cases that some bad brokersmade foreign women smuggle into Japan to work at adultoriented clubs and to force them to prostitute. The governmentfounded a cross-ministry organization to tackle the problemso that the victim may be legally protected.

(April 5, Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper)

The Immigration Bureau of Ministry of Justice currentlyaccepts the E-mailed information about illegally remainingforeigners, but City of Kobe April 13 requested through theMinister of Justice Nozawa Daizo to properly deal the system,saying that the system might foment discrimination againstforeigners. Hyogo prefecture also requested the Ministry ofJustice to stop the system April 14, but the Ministry refusedand said they would continue it. The Ministry of Justice explains the reason why they startedthe system in their URL page February, 2004: they stated it toreduce the estimated 250 thousand illegally remainingforeigners by half in five years. Any person having informationon illegal stay can access the Ministry’s page to inform illegallyremaining foreigner’s name or address. Kobe City says in the request paper that mailing theinformation is so easy and anonymous that it can be easilyused for calumniating any foreign people in Japan and mightfoment misunderstanding and prejudice against them. Hyogoprefecture also says that the system might encouragemonitoring against any foreigner in Japan, and Kobe Cityrequested to stop it. In Hyogo there are 103,000 foreigners. The Immigration bureau of the Ministry of Justice says that

they take careful consideration on the foreigners by refusingany calumniation against them in their URL page, and theyrefused to stop the system.

(March 29, Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper)

The Ministry of Justice will set up the special taskforceApril to arrest illegally staying foreigners to reduce now 250thousand illegally staying foreigners by half in five years. It isa goal set by the government.

The task force is organized by 200 officers dispatched from1100 Immigration Police officers nationwide. They belong tothe Tokyo Immigration bureau and are divided to Shinjuku,Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Akasaka troops. At each area, theycooperate with local police to obtain information, arrest, anddeport illegal foreigners to get them back to their mothercountries.

Their main target is to illegal hostesses and steerers atTokyo downtowns but local areas are also their range of activity.

The Ministry of Justice estimates illegal foreigners as 220thousand foreigners who do not leave Japan after their periodof stay is terminated and 30 thousand foreigners who illegallyentered Japan. The number of the arrested in 2002 were only

6,000 and the Ministry wants to arrest 14,000 this year.

Kobe City says NO to Immigration Bureau’sInformation System

219,400 illegal remainders, 0.5 Percent ReducedCompared to 2003

The Ministry of Justice announced March 26 that there are219,418 illegal alien remainders at the date of January 1, 2003– 1,134 (0.5 percent) persons reduced compared to 2003. Thenumber has been reducing for consecutive 11 years, but theministry says that it is only a slight decrease and the numberis still in the higher level. The largest illegal reminders are Koreans. They are 46,425in number, sharing 21percent to the total. Next is the Chinese– 33,522, or 21 percent. The third is the Filipinos – 31,428. TheChinese were the third last year, but this year they increasedby 13 percent and ranked to the second. The top category of the illegal remind was “short stay” andthey were 150,326, sharing 70 percent.(March 27, Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper)

Tokyo Immigration Set Up 200 Special Offic-ers

115 staff members of Metropolis of Tokyo have beendispatched to Tokyo Metropolitan Police and ImmigrationBureau starting April since this year because of recent increaseof crimes by illegally staying foreigners, and the ceremony ofdispatching was held March 31.

At the ceremony Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro gavethem a speech;”Both Metropolitan Police and the Immigrationlack the enough workforces. I want you to achieve satisfactoryresults by making use of your experience”.

(April 1, Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper)

Ceremony Held for Dispatching Officials toTokyo Metropolitan Police

Gov Founded a Conference Organization toEradicate Foreign Women’s Prostitution