Illegal foreign residents who appear in order to continue their residence in Japan are required under the present law to undergo three procedural stages — examination by an immigration inspector, a hearing by a special inquiry officer and the decision of the Minister of Justice — after investigation of the violation by an immigration control officer, despite the fact that violations are not disputed in most cases. This imposes a great burden on both the administrative sector and the illegal foreign residents who have appeared voluntarily. Therefore, simplified procedures which do not go into the illegality will be considered for cases where illegal foreign residents have appeared voluntarily and who seek special permission to stay.

Moreover, applications for renewal of the period of stay in Japan from foreign nationals who have caused no problems during their stay but who have inadvertently become illegal residents by forgetting the renewal deadline are presently not accepted. The only option is to order deportation procedures for them and give them special permission to stay in order to turn them back into legal residents. This has also imposed a great burden on both the administrative sector and the foreign nationals who, through forgetfulness, have become illegal residents as a result. For foreign nationals who have had short periods of illegal stay and there have been no problems with their residence, some relief measures along with a review of the three-stage system will be considered.

In order to strongly promote prompt deportation, consideration will be given to developing a legal principle forcing deportees to shoulder costs for their return to their home countries and building frameworks to promote deportation, including cooperation with relevant countries and airlines for prompt issuance of documents and arrangement of flights for their return.

In order to improve an environment that presently encourages illegal residence and in order to deter violations, not only will detection of illegal brokers and employers be reinforced, but also requests for employers to verify the identity of foreign nationals and their statuses of residence will be promoted in cooperation with relevant agencies. Institutionalizing such verification will also be considered when necessary.

## (6) Continuing Consideration of the Conditions of Illegal Foreign Residents

### A. Treatment Based on Links to Japanese Society

While the immigration control administration is urgently required to substantially reduce the number of illegal foreign residents, some of them deserve humanitarian consideration due to their relationships with Japanese nationals.

Japan has not adopted any amnesty policy which would encourage an inflow of new illegal foreign residents or extension of illegal residence, but special permission to stay has been granted to illegal foreign residents who have close links with Japanese society or who, from a humanitarian standpoint, would suffer from deportation. While taking into account the effects of special permission to stay on illegal foreign residents in general, the immigration control administration will continue to give sufficient humanitarian consideration and appropriate treatment to illegal foreign residents, who are identified as having close links with Japanese society, including close relationships with Japanese nationals or permanent foreign residents.

Specific standards are difficult to establish for special permission to stay since they depend on the discretion of the Minister of Justice: the Minister of Justice gives comprehensive consideration based on the details of individual cases. In order to increase the transparency of special permission to stay, however, more cases where special permission to stay has been granted will be made public and consideration will be given to whether and how to work out guidelines for special permission to stay while taking into careful account such guidelines' possible effects on other illegal foreign residents.

### B. Giving Consideration to the Victims of Trafficking in Persons

Trafficking in persons constitutes considerable abuse of human rights. In cases where foreign nationals became illegal residents due to trafficking in persons, immigration control officers in charge