Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
air carriers to ensure strict deportation of those refused entry to the country; steady and appropriate information management measures for foreign residents and other topics.

## 2 Seminar on Document Examination

At the Seminar on Immigration Control, more and more participants are expressing a strong need for transfer of technologies for examining forged or altered documents and exchange of relevant information. To address their needs, the Immigration Bureau has been holding the Seminars on Document Examination since FY 1995, inviting experts who engage in examining forged or altered documents in the countries and regions that participate in the Seminars on Immigration Control. Particularly in recent years, the problems of illegal immigration and related transnational organized crimes have become more serious throughout the world. Further in Asia, travel documents that are elaborately forged or altered are frequently being used, and this is regarded as a common problem among the immigration control authorities in Asian countries.

At the seminar, the Immigration Bureau provides participants with techniques for examining forged or altered documents, which have been accumulated by the Bureau, and also aims to promote effective technology transfer and information exchange while obtaining cooperation from other countries such as the United States and Canada. Thus, the Immigration Bureau makes efforts to exclude foreign nationals attempting to enter illegally with the use of forged or altered documents.

## Section 3 ☐ Supporting the Training Program: Immigration Control Administration Course

Since FY 1995, the Osaka International Center of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) has been providing a training program called the Immigration Control Administration Course. The Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau has provided full cooperation for this training program. This training program is intended to provide middle-level officers who carry out immigration control administration tasks in developing countries in Asia with information on current immigration control administration in Japan and technical training, thereby contributing to the development of immigration control administration and the establishment of its network in Asia.
## Chapter 7 Improving Public Relations and Administrative Services

## Section 1 ☐ Facilitating the Landing Examination Procedures

The Immigration Bureau has made efforts to facilitate the landing examinations at airports and seaports, but foreign nationals who visit Japan through airports have pointed out that they have to wait in line for a long time for the landing examination. In response to this complaint, measures have been taken at the immigration counters at Narita Airport to solve this problem, by assigning some immigration inspectors in charge of examining Japanese nationals to the examination of foreign nationals, and transferring immigration inspectors between immigration counters depending on the degree of congestion. In addition, the expected waiting time for examination of foreign nationals is indicated and priority lanes for the elderly, the disabled and pregnant women have been established. Thus, the Immigration Bureau has made additional efforts to facilitate procedures and improve administrative services.

Moreover, a fork line approach, which allows arriving passengers to stand in a single line, and proceed one by one to the next available booth, is employed. Airports also increase the number of immigration officers when the airport becomes congested, and display an information board that illustrates how to fill in an E/D card. In this way, the Immigration Bureau makes efforts for smoother immigration procedures while sometimes asking airlines for cooperation.

## Section 2 ☐ General Information Desk for Procedures to Apply for Entry into Japan and Recognition of Refugee Status

As interaction between Japan and other countries has become more frequent, the number of foreign nationals who visit Japan has been increasing and their inquiries about the landing procedures have become more diverse. Furthermore, it is also necessary to ensure that the refugee recognition system is operated appropriately. In order to respond to such inquiries from foreign nationals promptly and accurately, on January 6th 2003, a General Information Desk for Procedures to Apply for Entry into Japan and for Recognition of Refugee Status was established within the Narita Airport District Immigration Office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. This general information desk was also established within the Kansai Airport District Immigration Office of the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau on April 15th 2003.
## Section 3 ☐ Immigration Information Centers

Due to the differences in lifestyle, manners, customs and language, a number of foreign nationals who visit Japan are unfamiliar with procedures relating to immigration and residence or other Japanese legal or social systems. With a view to supporting such foreign nationals, immigration information centers have been established to provide foreign nationals and relevant Japanese nationals with the following services:

• Procedures relating to immigration to be followed when inviting foreign employees and trainees or receiving families from abroad to Japan.

• Procedures relating to residence to be followed when obtaining or changing the status of residence, extending the period of stay, and obtaining permission for permanent residence.

• Procedures for alien registration.

• Preparation of application documents concerning immigration and residence of foreign nationals.

• Other information concerning the immigration and residence of foreign nationals.

## Section 4 ♦ Immigration Bureau Website

In March 2002, the Immigration Bureau established its own website separately from the website of the Ministry of Justice. Through this site (http://www.immi-moj.go.jp), the Immigration Bureau publishes questions and answers on immigration and residential procedures as well as the addresses, contacts, location maps and business hours of regional immigration offices for the convenience of applicants. Since February 2004, the Immigration Bureau has been receiving information about foreign nationals who may be staying illegally by e-mail.

Moreover, the Immigration Bureau opened its English website at the end of FY 2005, and its website in Chinese, Korean and Portuguese at the end of FY 2006. Thus, the bureau has been making efforts to make the website convenient for foreign nationals.
# Chapter 8 Organizational Expansion and Staff Enhancement

Owing to significant changes in the circumstances affecting immigration control in recent years, in response to an increase in the quantity and in the complexity of immigration duties, measures have been taken to improve and expand the organization and staff for immigration control.

At the end of FY 2006, immigration control administration work was carried out by about 3,100 officials at the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice and other immigration control offices. Due to a wide range of problems in immigration control, further improvement and expansion of the organization and staff are still desired.

## Section 1 ♦ Organizations

## 1 Outline of the Immigration Control Organization

The organization that is responsible for immigration control duties is the Immigration Bureau, which is designated as an internal bureau of the Ministry of Justice. There are eight regional blocks, each of which has a regional immigration bureau as a local branch office of the Ministry of Justice. Each regional immigration bureau manages the district immigration offices and branch offices (including branch offices within the district immigration offices) under its jurisdiction. The Ministry of Justice also maintains three immigration centers as detention facilities. The organization as a whole performs various duties associated with immigration control such as immigration examinations, residence examinations, deportation procedures, and refugee recognition procedures in accordance with relevant laws and ordinances.

The Immigration Bureau, regional immigration bureaus, district immigration offices, branch offices, and immigration centers are collectively referred to as the "immigration control offices". (Charts 22 and 23)

## 2 Major Expansions of the Immigration Control Offices

## ( 1 ) Expanding the Organization for Smoother but Stricter Immigration Control

The present immigration control must satisfy two seemingly incompatible requirements: smoother but stricter immigration control. Therefore, in FY 2007, a new post of Chief Inspectional Supervisor (head of the office) was created for Haneda Airport to be in charge of
Chart 22 : Immigration Bureau organizational chart

supervising all work at Haneda. This will allow immigration examinations, which have been increasing significantly, to be conducted in a smooth but strict manner.

It has been decided that a new post of Inspectional Supervisor (head of the office) will be created for Chitose Tomakomai Branch Office, which has jurisdiction over New Chitose Airport that is serviced by many regular flights and charter flights. This position will provide overall supervision of immigration examinations at Asahikawa Airport, where regular flights have been in service since June 2006, and at Obihiro Airport, which has regular charter flights.

## (2) Expanding the Organization to Strengthen Measures against Illegal Foreign Residents

As already mentioned in Chapter 1 above, with the aim of halving the number of illegal foreign residents, the system to detect violators of the Immigration Control Act has been improved and reinforced mainly in the metropolitan areas. In FY 2003, the Research and Planning Department
Chart 23 : Responsibilities of the Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice
was established in the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau as an organization that receives, collects and analyzes information on illegal residents provided by residents or by related organizations and provides such information to the enforcement division. Furthermore, the Shinjuku Branch Office was established for the purpose of strengthening investigation of suspected violators of the Immigration Control Act including illegal foreign residents, collection of relevant information and detection of violators, mainly in the Shinjuku ward.

In FY 2005, the Immigration Bureau set up the First Investigation Department at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau. This new department is exclusively responsible for detecting illegal foreign residents in the Nagoya area. A detection task force was also set up in the bureau. In FY 2006, a detection task force was also set up in the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau in order to effectively and properly take countermeasures against illegal foreign residents.

Moreover, in FY 2006, the detention house at the Narita Airport District Immigration Office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau was considerably expanded. The Planning Management and Deportation Department and the Detention Department were also set up for appropriate detention and smooth deportation.

In FY 2007, in line with reorganization of the detection task forces, the Immigration Bureau established the Tobu Branch Office under the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau and set up a new detection task force in Tachikawa Branch Office and created a new post of Supervising Immigration Control Officer to supervise this task force.

In addition, due to the significant increase in the detention capacity at the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau in accordance with its scheduled move to a new building in FY 2007, a new post of Chef Supervising Immigration Control Officer in charge of deportation was created, in order to cope with the increase in work related to detention and deportation.

## Section 2 ☐ Staff

## 1 Immigration Control Staff

In immigration centers and regional immigration bureaus, immigration inspectors and immigration control officers are assigned as staff who are engaged in immigration control duties. In addition, secretaries of legal affairs engage in general administrative duties and specialists of legal affairs, including doctors, are also assigned.

Immigration inspectors are responsible for (i) examinations and hearings on landing and deportation, (ii) issuance of written detention orders and written deportation orders, (iii) provisional release, and (iv) investigation of recognition of refugees and statuses of residence. They are also engaged in examining statuses of residence as assistants for the Minister of Justice.
Immigration control officers are responsible for (i) investigation of violations concerning entry, landing or residence in Japan, (ii) detention, transportation and deportation of foreign nationals in order to execute written detention orders or written deportation orders, and (iii) treatment of inmates in immigration centers and detention facilities and guards of these detention facilities. They fall under police personnel in relation to the National Civil Service Law and the Law Concerning Salaries for General Service Personnel. As they are often involved in dangerous tasks, they are regarded as public security service staff.

Immigration control officers are divided into seven ranks (keibikan, keibicho, keibishicho, keibishi, keibishiho, keishucho, and keishu, in order of descending superiority) in order to clarify the chain of command for group operations for detection.

Individual immigration inspectors and immigration control officers perform their duties independently as specialists in immigration control and therefore, the specialist system was introduced. These officials are required to have legal knowledge necessary for their duties as well as a balanced point of view from an international perspective and the ability to interact with foreign nationals flexibly while giving consideration to their diverse cultures, customs and religions and their human rights.

## Staff Increase

The number of immigration control staff was 3,268 in FY 2007, up about 23% (605) from FY 2002 (2,663). During this period, the number of cases handled by immigration control offices remained at a high level, and the immigration control duties have been getting more complicated and difficult due to the necessity of implementing stricter immigration examinations to prevent terrorism and illegal entry, coping with forged or altered documents that have become increasingly more sophisticated, and enforcing strengthened detection of illegal foreign residents, some of whom are potential criminals. (Chart 24, Table 42)

In FY 2007, 195 persons were additionally assigned as immigration inspectors and immigration control officers. An outline of the staff increase is as follows.

## ( 1 ) Immigration Control Utilizing Biometrics

In accordance with the amendment of the Immigration Control Act in 2006, regulations have been introduced for the prevention of acts of terrorism, such as requiring the submission of personal identification information (fingerprints, etc.) at the landing examination. To this end, it was decided that immigration control utilizing biometrics should be implemented.

This decision requires foreign nationals (excluding special permanent residents) to provide fingerprints. Since exclusive examination staff with specialized knowledge and skills are necessary in order to carry out accurate and prompt fingerprint identification, 12 new
Chart 24 : Changes in the number of immigration control office personnel

Table 42: Changes in the number of immigration control office personnel

(People)

Division Fiscal Year	Secretaries in the Ministry of Justice	Regional Immigration Bureaus	Total
Secretaries	Inspector	Control officer	Others	Sub-Total
1985	169	155	703	658	55	1,571	1,740
1990	166	154	777	673	46	1,650	1,816
1995	163	165	1,152	869	38	2,224	2,387
1996	161	166	1,182	915	34	2,297	2,458
1997	161	166	1,203	931	31	2,331	2,492
1998	159	166	1,202	956	29	2,353	2,512
1999	159	165	1,204	978	27	2,374	2,533
2000	157	164	1,196	998	26	2,384	2,541
2001	156	155	1,211	1,017	26	2,409	2,565
2002	154	146	1,268	1,070	25	2,509	2,663
2003	152	144	1,272	1,101	24	2,541	2,693
2004	142	142	1,343	1,183	23	2,691	2,833
2005	131	122	1,433	1,266	20	2,841	2,972
2006	129	122	1,494	1,367	8	2,991	3,120
2007	128	121	1,580	1,431	8	3,140	3,268
immigration inspectors were assigned to the Narita Airport District Office.

At seaports, examination will be implemented, as a general rule, aboard the ship in order to prevent terrorists disguised as crewmembers from entering Japan. Crewmembers who wish to land are asked to submit personal identification information, as at the airports. Therefore, an additional 63 immigration inspectors were appointed to Sendai Regional Immigration Bureau, Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau, Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau, Hiroshima Regional Immigration Bureau, Takamatsu Regional Immigration Bureau and branch offices in charge of seaports.

In addition, a certificate of eligibility is issued to most foreign nationals newly entering Japan (excluding those on a short-term visit), as part of pre-entry examination. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the system for issuing certificates of eligibility. This improvement is urgently needed to avoid delays in issuance, which could negatively affect global business activities by enterprises. Six additional immigration inspectors have been appointed to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to this end.

## ( 2 ) Strengthening the Status of Residence Checking Capabilities at District Immigration Offices and Branch Offices

While the presence of illegal foreign residents, assumed to be about 200,000 in number, has become a social problem, illegal foreign residents have had a more serious adverse effect on Japan. For example, some foreign nationals are solely engaged in simple labor or have joined a criminal organization and have collaborated in committing crimes, disguised as legitimate residents through false marriages and false study.

To combat these issues, a decision was made to strengthen the status of the checking capabilities at district immigration offices and branch offices. An additional 20 immigration inspectors were appointed to Yokohama District Immigration Office, Kawasaki Branch Office, Kanazawa Branch Office, Shizuoka Branch Office, Hamamatsu Branch Office, Toyohashi Port Branch Office, Yokkaichi Port Branch Office, Kyoto Branch Office and Kobe District Immigration Office.

## ( 3 ) Strengthening the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau's Ability to Detect Illegal Foreign Residents

The Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau has been actively engaged in detecting illegal foreign residents, mainly in the four areas of Shibuya, Akasaka, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku where the number of illegal foreign residents is especially large in Tokyo. However, while the number of illegal residents is showing signs of decreasing in these four areas, a large proportion of illegal residents who were secretly living in these areas moved out to other regions, especially to the
eastern and western parts of Tokyo as well as the western part of Chiba, avoiding detection. Illegal residents are also thought to be spreading out from central Tokyo to other prefectures in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Therefore, there is an urgent need to review and strengthen the detection system in the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

To this end, a decision was made to establish the Tobu Branch Office, as well as to appoint an additional 60 immigration control officers to Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, Tobu Branch Office and Tachikawa Branch Office.

Moreover, an ensured sufficient capacity and prompt deportation are necessary to significantly increase the number of foreign nationals deported from Japan. The Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau is planning to move to a new building by November 2007, and its detention capacity will significantly increase to 200 from the current 42. Therefore, an additional 22 immigration control officers were appointed to Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau to be in charge of the treatment and return of inmates.

## ( 4 ) Strengthening the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau's Ability to Carry Out Refugee Research

The introduction of the refugee examination counselors system in 2005 has further improved the fairness and neutrality of the refugee application procedure. The number of applications for refugee status saw an increase from 216 in 2000 to 384 in 2005, about 1.8 times higher. Decisions on whether to grant refugee status to applicants require a significant amount of time.

On the other hand, there are increasing expectations within the global community for the Japanese government to extend humanitarian consideration to refugees and make further international contributions. The Immigration Bureau is expected to further enhance its research activities on the recognition of refugees.

Therefore, an additional 12 refugee inquirers were appointed to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in order to strengthen its research ability on the recognition of refugees.

## 3 Training

For the purpose of handling immigration control duties that have become increasingly more complicated and difficult in recent years, it is necessary to improve the ability and skills of immigration control officials. To this end, efforts have been made to enhance and strengthen the training system.
## Section 1 ☐ Budgets

Chart 25 shows the trends in budgets for immigration control administration. Despite severe fiscal and administrative limitations in recent years, the fiscal authorities approved the Immigration Bureau's expenses to implement necessary immigration control duties and related projects leading to improvement and enhancement of immigration control administrative capabilities(Chart 25)

Chart 25: Changes in the budget for immigration control administration

## Section 2 ☐ Facilities

Due to globalization, more and more foreign nationals are entering and staying in Japan of late. In addition, Japan also has many illegal foreign residents. To address such situations, the regional immigration bureaus have recently been constructing new buildings and have expanded a detention facility in order to increase the capacity.
In FY 2006, the detention house at the Narita Airport District Immigration Office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau commenced operations with an increase in its detention capacity from 48 to 350 persons. In addition, new buildings of the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau and the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau will be completed as a single building for legal service in FY 2007.

The Immigration Bureau will continue to actively upgrade the immigration control facilities when the need arises. ( Table 43 )

Table 43: Changes in the capacity for detention

(People)

Fiscal Year Division	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Total	2,568	2,788	3,039	3,108	3,410	3,410	3,848
Immigration Centers	1,549	1,549	1,800	1,800	1,800	1,800	1,800
Regional Immigration Bureaus	1,019	1,239	1,239	1,308	1,610	1,610	2,048

as of every March 31 (the number for 2007 is an estimate.)
## 重要な調達の事前審査 (又は事後報告) 案件一覧

No	物品役務等の名称	契約(予定)時期	契約の相手方の商号又は名称	調達(予定)方法	契約金額(円,税込み)	備考
(事前審査)
1	本局ファイルサーバーの更新	H22.10	—	一般競争入札	—
2	2号館から6号館への引越に伴う一部造作工事	H22.10	—	一般競争入札	—
3	2号館から6号館への引越作業	H22.10	—	一般競争入札	—
4	引越に伴うネットワーク機器の追加購入等	H22.10	—	一般競争入札	—
(事後報告)
5	公正取引委員会LANシステム運用支援業務一式	H22.4.1	富士ソフト株式会社	一般競争入札	20,764,800
6	平成22年度自動車運行管理委託契約	H22.4.1	日本総合サービス株式会社	一般競争入札	16,405,200
7	INカルテルワークショップ会場の供用業務等	H22.4.1	株式会社東急ホテルズ	一般競争入札	14,221,725

注) 調達予定価格が1,000万円を超えるものを重要な調達として事前審査の対象としている。また、執行に緊急を要する場合は事後報告で可としている。