Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
Table47 Changes in the number and percentage of overstayers who entered Japan with “College Student” and “Pre-College Student”

Date Division	January 1 1999	January 1 2000	January 1 2001	January 1 2002	January 1 2003	January 1 2004	January 1 2005
Total number of overstayers	271,048	251,697	232,121	224,067	220,552	219,418	207,299
College Student	5,914	5,100	4,401	4,442	5,450	6,672	8,173
Percentage of total(%)	2.2	2.0	1.9	2.0	2.5	3.0	3.9
Pre -college Student	12,931	11,359	10,025	9,953	9,779	9,511	8,506
Percentage of total(%)	4.8	4.5	4.3	4.4	4.4	4.3	4.1

## 2 Instructions to Problematic Educational Institutions

In FY 2004, some educational institutions did not manage the enrolled students properly, as they had not sufficiently confirmed the intention of the candidates to study when screening or had not verified the addresses of the students or their part-time work behavior. From this viewpoint, the Immigration Bureau conducted a survey on special technical schools and other educational institutes to identify the schools that manage their students in a problematic manner. Based on the survey results, the Immigration Bureau required persons in the problematic educational institutions to appear at the regional immigration bureaus that have jurisdiction over the locations of those institutions, and instructed them to make improvements in screening and overall management of enrolled students.

In addition, as more and more foreign students are overstaying in Japan, the Immigration Bureau also requested MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) to give instructions for proper overall management of the enrolled students.

## 3 Programs for Accepting Foreign Students in School Evening Classes

According to the current Immigration Control Act, if a foreign student intends to study at a Japanese university with the status of residence of “College Student” by exclusively enrolling in school evening classes, the foreign student may not enter Japan because he does not satisfy the criteria for landing permission regarding the status of “College Student” (Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice). On the other hand, as the ways of learning are diversifying, there is a growing demand for education at the evening classes of graduate schools. In order to promote acceptance of high-quality foreign students in graduate schools, as one of the special measures applicable to the special zones for structural reform, a ministerial ordinance to provide special measures applicable to the special zones for structural reform and special rules for the criteria for landing permission regarding the
status of “College Student” was enacted on August 29, 2003 (and entered into force on October 1, 2003). Under this ordinance, the status of “College Student” shall be granted to foreign students who study in graduate courses of graduate school evening classes if the colleges to which the graduate schools belong responsibly manage the students enrolled in the schools. Such foreign students studying in the evening classes of graduate schools shall also be granted comprehensive permission for engaging in activities other than those permitted by the status of residence within a limit of 28 hours a week.

As with the project for accepting foreign data processing specialists in Japan, the aforementioned project was also evaluated by the Evaluation Committee in the second half of 2004. As the committee found no problems with the program, the HPSZSR made the decision on February 9, 2005 to expand this program nationwide within FY2005.

## 4 Accepting Foreign Students Who Work as Foreign Language Teachers during the Summer Vacation

In line with the “Program for the Regional Revitalization Program” decided by the Cabinet Office’s Regional Revitalization Headquarters (presided over by the Prime Minister), the Immigration Bureau decided to permit foreign students to stay in Japan from February 18, 2005 on condition that they participate in programs for cultural exchange organized by public bodies and give lectures, with pay, on international cultural exchange to Japanese elementary and junior high school students for three months or less during the summer vacation or other vacations, when these students have no classes at university.

## 5 Reviewing the Status of Residence of Foreign Students Who Study at Foreign University’s Extension Campuses in Japan

Even if a foreign university has an extension campus in Japan (“foreign university’s Japanese extension campus”), the School Education Law does not provide it with the official status of a university. As the ministerial ordinance for amending the School Education Law Enforcement Regulations has come into effect, students who have graduated from a foreign university’s Japanese extension campus may enter university-level advanced courses or graduate schools, if the extension campus is designated in a notice by the Minister of Education. As a result, if a foreign national engages in research activities, guides research activities, or provides education at a foreign university’s Japanese extension campus, the
foreign national will have the status of residence of “Professor” as long as he satisfies other legal requirements. In addition, foreign students at a foreign university’s Japanese extension campus will have the status of residence of “College Student”.

## Section 6 — System of Revocation of Status of Residence

In recent years, a number of foreign residents have obtained permission for landing by making a false statement, are engaging in illegal work without engaging in the activities authorized under their status of residence or are committing crimes, thereby preventing fair immigration control. To deal with such a situation, the Ministerial Meeting against Crimes formulated an “Action Plan for the Realization of a Society Resistant to Crime” in December 2003. The Action Plan calls for introducing a new scheme that would revoke the status of residence of a foreign national if he has obtained permission for landing by making a false statement or any other illegal means. In line with the Action Plan, the amended Immigration Control Act of May 27, 2004 has set up the system of revocation of the status of residence (the amendment legislation was promulgated on June 2, 2004 and entered into effect on December 2, 2004). According to the amended Immigration Control Act, a foreign national will lose his status of residence in the following cases: he obtained the stamp of permission for landing by making a false statement regarding the activities to be undertaken while in Japan, he pretended that he did not fall under the grounds for denial of landing or he did not engage in any of the activities permitted under his status of residence for three months without reasonable grounds.

At the end of February 2005, the Immigration Bureau had revoked the status of residence of three persons in Japan, but from March 2 onward, since the bureau will be able to revoke the status of residence of foreign nationals who fail to engage in the activities permitted by the status of residence previously granted for three months without reasonable grounds, the number of residence revocation cases is likely to increase in the future.
# Chapter 5 Deportation Procedures

## Section 1 — Measures against Illegal Immigrants

## 1 Amendment of the Immigration Control Act as a Measure against Illegal Immigrants

## (1) Outline of the Amendment to the Immigration Control Act in 2004

Several amendments have been made to the Immigration Control Act so far in order to take measures against illegal foreign residents. On May 27, 2004, the Diet amended the Immigration Control Act, which substantially raised the fines for illegal residents and extended the landing denial period to 10 years (from five years) for illegal foreign residents in particularly serious cases. Further, the amended Act established the departure order system, which provides simpler procedures to enable illegal residents to quickly leave Japan, if they voluntarily appear at an immigration control office and satisfy certain requirements. The amended Act also shortens the landing denial period from the current five years to 1 year, thereby encouraging illegal residents to voluntarily appear in front of the immigration control authorities. (The amendment of the Immigration Control Act was promulgated on June 2, 2004 and entered into force on December 2, 2004.)

## (2) Effects of the Departure Order System

In recent years, the number of violators of the Immigration Control Act who voluntarily appeared at the regional immigration bureaus with the intention of departing from Japan had seen little change. In this context, as explained in (1) above, the Immigration Bureau decided to introduce the departure order system in order to encourage illegal residents to voluntarily appear. The system was introduced on December 2, 2004. However, the bureau had announced that the system would apply even to illegal residents who appeared between November 1 and December 1, 2004 and satisfied certain requirements. As a result, 2,148 illegal immigrants voluntarily appeared at the immigration control offices in November 2004, a significant increase of 722 (up 50.6%) from 1,426 in November 2003. In December 2004, the number of illegal immigrants voluntarily appearing stood at 2,005, an increase of 487 (up 32.1%) from 1,518 in December 2003. From December 2 to December 31, the bureau ordered 918 illegal immigrants to leave Japan.
While analyzing and estimating how many illegal residents will appear voluntarily, the Immigration Bureau will work on PR activities to encourage more and more illegal residents to voluntarily appear at the immigration offices.

## 2 Actively Enhancing Detection Activities

## (1) Enhancing Detection Capabilities

Most overstayers are illegally working in Japan. As a characteristic of recent years, these illegal workers tend to work for a longer time and live or work in different locations by forming much smaller groups.

Further, some legal residents, such as college students or pre-college students, are involved in activities not permitted under their status of residence. In addition, there is an increasing number of foreign nationals engaging in fake marriages or pretending to be Japanese descendants, aiming at illegally obtaining a status of residence with an unlimited scope of activities.

Under the basic policy of reducing the number of illegal foreign residents in Japan by preventing them from settling down in Japan, the Immigration Bureau established investigation departments in the regional immigration bureaus in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya in order to have permanent detection systems. In FY 2003, the Immigration Bureau instituted a first branch office exclusively in charge of exposing illegal foreign residents in Kabuki-cho, a district in Shinjuku ward, Tokyo, aiming at enhancing detection capabilities.

In FY 2004, to further reinforce detection abilities, the bureau set up detection task forces at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, which is responsible for the Tokyo Metropolitan Area where a large number of illegal foreign workers are working or staying secretly. The bureau conducted exposure operations, focusing on nightlife districts where numerous illegal residents are concentrated.

While closely working with the police department, the Immigration Bureau will stringently implement effective exposure operations, and smooth and efficient deportation procedures. In addition, as unscrupulous employers are facilitating illegal employment, the Immigration Bureau intends to notify the police department of these employers so that they will be sentenced to criminal punishment on account of having assisted illegal labor.

## (2) Reinforcement of Patrols in the Airports

Recently, many persons have been using the transit areas in Japanese airports for
unlawful purposes such as illegally entering the US or other countries, or helping others enter Japan. Preventing such behavior is of utmost importance as a countermeasure against terrorism and international organized crimes, and therefore the Immigration Bureau has been reinforcing patrols in the transit areas in Narita Airport and Kansai Airport since FY 2002 in order to detect or prevent the use of forged or altered passports.

## Section 2 — Improving the Treatment of Illegal Foreign Residents in the Detention Facilities While Giving More Consideration to Human Rights

Foreign nationals who stay in Japan in violation of the Immigration Control Act shall be detained under a written detention order issued by the supervising immigration inspector during the deportation procedures. If they are to be deported from Japan, they shall be detained under a written deportation order issued by the supervising immigration inspector. As detention facilities for these foreign nationals, the Immigration Bureau has a total of 16 detention houses at the regional immigration bureaus, their district immigration offices and some branch offices, as well as three immigration centers in Ushiku city in Ibaraki prefecture, Ibaragi city in Osaka prefecture, and Omura city in Nagasaki prefecture.

These detention facilities have been established for the purpose of detaining illegal foreign nationals in temporary custody until they are deported from Japan. Therefore, in the treatment of foreign nationals detained in these facilities (hereinafter referred to as "detainees"), arrangements have conventionally been made to give them as much freedom as possible to the extent that causes no security risks and which respects the lifestyle of individual detainees according to the culture and customs of their home countries. In August 1998, the rules on the treatment of detainees of detention facilities were amended (the amendment entered into force on September 1, 1998) to treat detainees properly while giving more consideration to human rights. In accordance with the amendment, an opinions' system was also introduced to hear the opinions of inmates by placing at the detention facilities opinion boxes into which detainees can submit opinions on their treatment to the head of the facility. The rules were further amended in September 2001 to start the operation of the appeal system on November 1. Under this system, detainees who are dissatisfied with their treatment by immigration control officers can appeal to the head of the detention facility and finally to the Minister of Justice. Thus, active efforts have been made to improve the treatment of detainees in the detention facilities. Previously, if
a detainee met with a person other than a consul, an immigration control officer needed to accompany the detainee. As the aforementioned rule was revised on April 1, 2003, the detainee does not have to be accompanied by an immigration control officer when he meets with another person as long as this does not pose any security risks.

Each immigration center and the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau have been making additional arrangements for the treatment of detainees while giving as much consideration as possible to freedom and human rights to the extent that causes no security risks, such as making telephones freely accessible to detainees during the period of open treatment and providing them with additional opportunities to bathe and take outdoor exercise.

## Section 3 — Efforts for Smoother Deportation

Smooth and prompt deportation of illegal foreign residents is, in addition to expansion of detention facilities, crucially important in taking effective measures against the problem of illegal residents. The Cabinet decided to set up the Headquarters to Promote Responses to International Organized Crime, and on August 29, 2001, the Headquarters adopted the Plan on Future Measures against International Organized Crime. In the section regarding “cooperation with the countries concerned” in the plan, the report states that “for smooth deportation of illegal foreign residents, the government will request the foreign countries concerned to promptly issue passports and other travel documents”. At a meeting between the Japanese and Chinese consular authorities held in Dalian in February 2004, the Immigration Bureau, in cooperation with other agencies, requested the Chinese government to promptly issue travel documents for deportation of Chinese nationals and to establish a stable issuance system. In June 2004, representatives of the Immigration Bureau visited Beijing, China to discuss countermeasures on illegal residents with officials of China’s Public Security Ministry and strongly requested its Chinese counterpart to issue travel documents as quickly as possible.

Annex 9 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) provides that the competent authorities of signatory countries shall, without fail, seize fraudulent, forged or altered travel documents, and the deporting state shall issue a covering letter in place of the seized document. In accordance with this rule, the Japanese government has been issuing this letter since December 2003 in order to ensure smooth deportation.
## Section 4 — Treating Illegal Immigrants While Paying Attention to Their Status

If an illegal foreign resident who has violated the Immigration Control Act expresses a wish to stay in Japan in the deportation procedures, the Immigration Bureau will pay due attention to his individual circumstances, including the reason why he wishes to stay in Japan, relationships with family members, living conditions, behavior and other factors as well as family unity and other humanitarian perspectives. After considering the effects on other illegal residents, the Immigration Bureau actively grants special permission to stay if it is necessary to do so. As a result, the bureau granted special permission to stay an increasing number of times in 2004.

The Minister of Justice has extensive discretionary power in granting special permission, and it is difficult to set clear criteria on permission. However, in order to grant special permission to stay in a more transparent and proper manner, the Ministry of Justice has been disclosing information on actual cases of special permission on its website since August 2004. The ministry will keep disclosing such data in the future as well.

## Section 5 — Reinforcing Cooperation with the Authorities Concerned

## 1 Violation of the Immigration Control Act in General

In addition to the measures given in Section 1 above, the Immigration Bureau has been taking the following measures to reinforce cooperation with the authorities concerned, thereby taking much more effective countermeasures against illegal residents.

In order to promote effective prevention and intensified detection of violation of the Immigration Control Act, the Council for Prevention and Detection of Violation of the Immigration Control Act has been held since 1971. At this council, representatives from the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have been discussing measures to properly deal with violations of the Act while sharing information and developing close cooperation among them. In November FY 2004, the council held in Hiroshima discussed (i) the present situation of illegal entry and possible countermeasures, and (ii) the present situation of illegal foreign
workers and possible countermeasures.

In line with the action plans decided by the Ministerial Meeting Concerning Measures against Crimes and the Headquarters to Promote Responses to International Terrorism and International Organized Crime, the Immigration Bureau has been enhancing its countermeasures against illegal entry or illegal foreign residents. The Immigration Bureau has also developed close cooperation in sharing information with the other authorities concerned, such as the Headquarters for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Firearms, the Headquarters for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse, and the Council for Regulation of Smuggling, aiming at effectively regulating serious violations of the Act.

## 2 Measures against Illegal Foreign Workers

To deal with the issue of illegal foreign workers, efforts should be made from various perspectives. For this reason, it is necessary to reinforce cooperation among the authorities concerned and to build a more effective cooperative structure.

To this end, the Immigration Bureau reports or brings charges to the investigating authorities against unscrupulous employers and brokers of illegal foreign workers in order to encourage the authorities to impose criminal punishments on account of facilitating illegal employment practices. The Immigration Bureau also requests the investigating authorities to apply penal provisions under the relevant laws and ordinances when finding any cases where employers or brokers coerce illegal foreign workers into prostitution or exploit them without paying sufficient wages.

There is a growing demand, from the perspective of globalization, for measures to accept foreign workers in wider fields and smoother procedures. Meanwhile, in light of the fact that illegal employment of foreign nationals has become a serious social problem, the Immigration Bureau also participates in the Liaison Council of the Ministries and Agencies on the Issue of Foreign Workers, which was established under the Cabinet Secretariat. The Immigration Bureau, the Cabinet Office, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have been discussing the issue of illegal foreign workers while examining various matters concerning the acceptance of foreign nationals including foreign workers.

The National Police Agency, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Health, Labour
and Welfare have periodically exchanged information at the Liaison Council of Director-Generals on Measures against Illegal Foreign Workers, and the Conference on Measures against Illegal Foreign Workers and have discussed specific measures on the issue of illegal foreign workers, including joint detection.